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THE IMPERIAL ISLAND 



ISg 'the same ^utijor : 

THE HISTORICAL MONUMENTS 
OF FRANCE. 

One volume royal octavo, pp. xiv, 336, and 27 

pages of illustrations, uniform with 

the present book. 



Descriptions of the chief Monuments of France, 
together with Lists of about 2,200 other works of his- 
torical importance, most of them large, are geographi- 
cally arranged. Besides the great number which the 
government classes as Historical Monuments, about 
four hundred other and similar interesting objects 
are indicated. 



TICKNOR AND COMPANY. Boston. 




1 IHIISHJW -oris gW IEHTH 



MA3PIS1L 



THE 



Imperial Island 



CnglanD's Chronicle in ^tone 



/by 

A 

JAMES Fl' HUNNEWELL 

AUTHOR OF 
"THE LANDS OF SCOTT," "THE HISTORICAL MONUMENTS OF FRANCE," ETC. 




'APR 15 1886' 



■>F WASH 



BOSTON 

TICKNOR AND COMPANY 

1886 



[the library 

1 OF CONGRESS 
JWA 



WASHINGTON 



Copyright, 1886, 
By Tames F. Hunnewell. 



All rights reserved. 



JHnfofrsttrr ^3ress: 
John Wilson and Son, Cambridge. 



CONTENTS. 



Page 

THE IMPERIAL ISLAND : Its physical features 13 

Early Britain 15 

Stonehenge, 16 ; Avebury, 17 ; other relics, 18. 

Roman Britain 19 

The Ports, 22 ; Rutupiae, 22 ; Regulbium, 26 ; Dubris, 27 ; 

Portus Lemanis, 27 ; other ports, 28. 
The Roman Wall, 30 ; Cities, 42 ; Pavements, 42. 
Town Walls, 43; St. Alban's, 43; Colchester, 44; Silchester, 
44 ; Aldborough (mosaics), 46 ; Chichester, 48. 

Engle and Saxon England 50 

The Norman Period 57 

The Ports, 60 ; Pevensey Castle, 60 ; Portchester, 62 ; Dover, 

64 ; Colchester, 69 ; Norwich, 73. 
The Royal Castles, 73; Tower of London, 73; Windsor, 85. 
Close of the civil history of the period, 94. 

THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND ... 97 

Dates, styles, and dimensions of the Cathedrals, 106. 
The Cathedrals. Southern Cathedrals and Cathedral 
Towns, 111. Canterbury, 111; Rochester, 117; Chichester, 
119; Winchester, 121; Salisbury, 125; Bristol, 130; Wells, 
131 ; Bath, 135 ; Exeter, 137. Midland, 139. St. Paul's, 
London, 139 ; St. Alban's, 145 ; Peterborough, 149 ; Ely, 153 ; 
Norwich, 159 ; Lincoln, 161 ; Southwell, 168 ; Oxford, 170 ; 
Gloucester, 171; Hereford, 175; Worcester, 179; Lichfield, 183; 
Chester, 189 ; Manchester, 198. Northern, 200. York, 200 ; 
Ripon, 212 ; Carlisle, 214 ; Newcastle, 218 ; Durham, 220. 

Westminster Abbey 229 

The Monasteries 244 

Glastonbury, 251; Yorkshire, 254 ; Fountains, 255 ; Bolton, 
259 ; Kirkstall, 251 ; Whitby, 263 ; Selby, 265. North- 
umberland, 267 ; Lindisfarne, 268 ; Tynemouth, 270 ; 
Hexham, 271. Northwestern, 273; Furness, 273. West- 
ern, 277. Tintern, 277. Southern, 278. Netley, 279; 
Malmesbury, 279. Midland and Eastern, 280. 
Country Seats called Abbeys, 281; Battle, Welbeck, and 
Eleven others, 282 ; Newstead, 283. 
1 



IV CONTENTS. 

Page 

Collegiate Churches and Minsters 284 

Wimborne and Sherborne, 285 ; Beverley, 286. 

Parish Churches 288 

St. Mary Redcliffe, 291 ; Saffron Walden, 292 ; St. Botolph's, 
Boston, 293 ; St. George, Doncaster, 295 ; St. Michael's, 
Coventry, and St. Mary, Warwick, 296 ; Stoke Pogis, 296 ; 
Chalfont St. Giles, 297 ; Stratford-on-Avon, 298. 

CIVIL HISTORY FROM THE NORMAN TO THE ELIZA- 
BETHAN PERIOD 301 

Conquest op Wales, and Castles on its Border .... 302 
Conway, 303 ; Carnarvon, 304; Nine castles on the coast, 306 ; 
Cardiff, 307; Caerphilly, 308 ; Chepstow, 308; Raglan, 311; 
Ludlow, 313 ; other castles, 317. 

The Northern Frontier, 1291-1603 317 

Berwick, Norham, etc., 320; Warkworth, 321; Alnwick, 322; 
minor castles, 324. 

The Feudal Guards op the Midland Counties 324 

In Durham, 326; in Yorkshire, Middleham, 327, Bolton, 328, 
Scarborough, 330 ; Kenilworth, 330 ; Warwick, 331; Leeds, 
333 ; Berkeley, 334 ; Herstmonceaux, 335. 

The Ancient Colleges 337 

Oxford, 337 ; Cambridge, 344 ; Winchester, 348 ; Eton, 348. 
Medieval England : a Retrospect 349 

MODERN ENGLAND. The Age of Elizabeth 353 

The Great Residences, before 1600 355 

Transittonal : Penshurst, 355 ; Haddon Hall, 357 ; Speke, 

359 ; Knole, 360. 
Renaissance : Burleigh, 364 ; Wollaton, 368 ; Hardwicke, 
368. 

The Age of James 1 371 

Audley End, 372; Holland House, 375; Hatfield, 375; Aston 
Hall, 376. 

England since 1640 378 

The Patrician Palaces 381 

Chatsworth, 381; Blenheim, 382; Houghton Hall, 386; Stowe, 
388. 

The Royal Palaces 390 

Early Palaces, 391 ; Whitehall, 392 ; Hampton Court, 393 ; 
Kensington, 399 ; St. James's, 399 ; Buckingham, 400. 
Civil Buildings, Law, Municipal, and State. 

Town-Halls : Boston, 402 ; Worcester, 402 ; Birmingham 
and Leeds, 402. Courts : Liverpool, 403 ; Manchester, 
404 ; London, The Temple, 404 ; Lincoln's Inn, 406 ; Law 
Courts, 406 ; Somerset House, 407 ; Bank of England, 408 ; 
Post Office, etc., 408; British Museum, 409; Royal Ex- 
change, 411 ; Houses of Parliament, 412. 



ILLUSTRATIONS. V 

MODERN ENGLAND (continued). Page 

Benevolent Institutions 416 

Memorial Monuments 417 

London 419 

The Simple Homes op England 422 

Conclusion. 

Notes : I. Bibliographical, 431. II. Ancient British Mon- 
uments, 431. III. Roman Mosaic Pavements, 432. 
IV. Saxon Work, 434. V. Castles and Residences, 436. 
VI. Norman Keeps, 436. VII. Notes omitted, 436. 
Index 437 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

Titles of works from which illustrations are taken are more fully given in notes on 
pages referred to in parentheses, as (n. 16). Numbers 12-13, 18-19, 32-3, 36-7, 64-5, are 
double-page. The sizes of several plates are here necessarily reduced. 

EARLY BRITISH PERIOD. T p a f ge 6 

1. Stonehenge. From Inigo Jones, 1655 (n. 16) 16 

2. From Higgins's Celtic Druids, 1829 16 

ROMAN PERIOD. 

3-6. Richborough (Rutupise). From C R. Smith, 1850 (n. 23) 24 

7. The Roman Wall, near Borcovicus. From Hodgson's History 

of Northumberland 36 

8. Peel Crag. From Hodgson's History of Northumberland . . 38 
9-11. The Roman Wall, near Walltown. From Hodgson's His- 
tory of Northumberland 40 

12-13. Map op Roman Britain. From Hubner, 1873 (n. 19) . . 48 

NORMAN PERIOD. (For Church arch., see Nos. 20, 45, 46, 47, 54.) 

14. Colchester. The Keep. From Britton's Architectural Anti- 

quities, vol. i., 1807-14 70 

15. Norwich. The Keep. From Britton's Architectural Anti- 

quities, vol. vi., 1807-14 73 

THE ROYAL CASTLES. 

16-17. BeaucHamp Tower (Tower of London), exterior before 

and after restoration. From Dick, 1853 (n. 73, 79) . . . 79 
18-19. The Tower op London. From Vetusta Monumenta (n. 80) 80 

20. Interior of the Chapel. From Bayley, 1821 (n. 73) 82 

21. " op the Beauchamp Tower. From Bayley, 
1821 (n. 73) 83 



VI ILLUSTBATIONS. 

THE ROYAL CASTLES (continued). Toface 

v ' page 

22. Windsor Castle. View from Eton 85 

23. South Front, 1824. From Wyatville, 1841 (n. 85) . 88 

24. " " after restoration. From Wyatville, 
1841 (n. 85) 88 

25. Waterloo Gallery 92 

26. View from the Long Walk. 22, 25, and 26 are from 

Ritchie's Windsor, 1848 (n. 85) 94 

CATHEDRALS. 

27. Canterbury. Southwest view 113 

28. Winchester. Chantries. From Britton (n. Ill) .... 123 

29. St. Cross, Hospital 124 

30. Salisbury. Southwest view. From F. Nash, etched by Geo. 

Cooke 126 

31. Wells. West Front. From Cockerell, xxiv. (n. 131) . . . 132 
32-33. London. Interior of the Dome. From Dugdale (n. 139) 141 

34. Peterborough. The West Front. According to Gunton . 151 

35. The West Front. From D. King, 1656 (n. Ill) . . 151 
36-37. Ely. The Octagon. From Bentham, 1812 (n. 153) . . 155 

38. Lincoln. The Angel Choir. From Wild (n. 161) .... 165 

39. Oxford. The Chapter House. From Britton 171 

40. Lichfield. Spires and West Front. From J. C. Buckler . 185 

41. York. The West Front. From Buckler, 1822 (n. Ill) . . 206 

42. Interior of the Choir. From Britton, (n. Ill) ... 209 

43. Southeast view, exterior. " " . . 211 

44. Carlisle. East End, exterior. From Billings, 24,1840 (n. 214) 217 

45. Durham. General View. From Billings, 1843 (n. 221) . . 220 

46. The Nave, interior. " " . . 223 

47. The Galilee, " " " . . 224 

THE MONASTERIES. 

48. Westminster Abbey. Henry VII. Chapel, exterior. From 

Neale, 1818 (n. 229)' 230 

49. Henry V. Chapel. From Neale, 1818 (n. 229) ... 234 

50. Poet's Corner. .... 236 

51. Henry VII. Chapel, interior. " " (Frontispiece) 

52. Fountains Abbey. Plan. From Grose, vi 257 

53. The Tower. From Coney. Plates for the new Monas- 

ticon (n. 244) . . '. 257 

54. Kirkstall. Northwest View. From Coney. Plates for the 

new Monasticon 262 

55. Tynemouth Priory. The Choir. From Byrne. Plates for 

the new Monasticon 270 

56. Newstead Abbey. From Coney. Plates for the new Monasticon 284 

MIDLAND CASTLES. 

57. Middleham. From Britton 326 

58. Warwick. From Westall and Radclyffe, 1829 331 



ILLUSTRATIONS. yii 

THE GREAT RESIDENCES. To face 

page 

59. Knole. The front. From Amsinck's Tunbridge, 1810 . 361 

60. Wollaton Hall. Corner of the Garden front. From Nash 368 

61. Hardwicke Hall. The Gallery. From Robinson .... 370 

62. Audley End. View. From Winstanley (n. 372) . . . 373 

63. Hatfield House. Centre of the south front 375 

64-65. Map of Modern England. From one published by the 

Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge . . . 431 

These illustrations are like references to text made in the only practicable way iu 
which the writer could open a book beside him and show the reader a plate which is 
curious, or correct and good as a view, or which can be transferred to an octavo page. 
It will be found that many of the best English representations of the objects described 
in this volume are in the older books made in the days when plate engraving flourished, 
and also that the styles of illustrating have varied. Line, aquatinta, colored, etching, 
and lithograph, have been in fashion, and now the woodcut, often exquisite as art. 
After looking at over ten thousand plates (counted for bibliographical purposes) the 
writer arranges his gleanings to give as best he can on sixty pages a conception of the 
great variety of monumental edifices which he has described. Where he has several 
plates of a subject, the most interesting or correct available one is chosen, at times 
with regret that some of the most effective, of large folio size, or colored, cannot be 
reproduced. 

There are a great many plates valuable from rarity, or as the only ones of views or 
objects which have changed (as, for instance, many in the County Histories), but a 
remarkably large number of these are of little general interest. Iu others the value is 
rather as works of art than as representations, and some " original compositions " are 
more original than their subjects. 

The examples given show in some degree the older styles, from those of Inigo Jones's 
work, 1655 (p. 16); King's, with some of the earliest illustrations of the cathedrals 
(p. 151); Winstanley's large and very rai-e work on Audley End (note, 372); and Ben- 
tham (p. 155), one of the earlier historians of single cathedrals ; to Britton, Buckler, 
Wild, Neale, Billings, and the new Monasticon, with plates of ecclesiastical edifices 
which have never been surpassed, and also from the Monumenta of the Society of Anti- 
quaries, the Vitruvius Britannicus, the grand atlas folio of Wyatville, and more recent 
books and single plates. 

The Norman styles in ecclesiastical works are shown in illustrations numbered 20, 
45, 46, 47, and 54 ; in military, by 14 (ruin), 15, and 23 and 24 (restoration). Early 
English Pointed is shown in 30, 31, 39, 53, and 55 ; Decorated (middle Pointed) in 
36-7, 38, 41-3 ; Perpendicular (late Pointed) in 27, 48, 51, and 52 ; and modern in 23 
and 24. Residences (Castellated) are shown in 22-6, and 58 ; transition styles in 59 ; 
Elizabethan in 60-2 ; and Jacobean in 63. 

Places and objects remain, substantially, as they are shown above, except in 1, 16, 
18-19, and 23, intended to represent former conditions. From 46 the organ, and from 
62 the screen in front, have been removed. The dates of the original plates, and conse- 
quently about the time when the views were taken, are given in most cases. The repro- 
ductions (some of them hard to make) are by the Heliotype Printing Co. of Boston. 



PREFACE. 



In this book the history of England is followed, and is read 
as it is shown in the works of twenty centuries scattered 
throughout her territory. Seen in their own places, these 
works, as time and men have made them, are no mere carv- 
ing and masonry, grand, picturesque, or charming as often are 
the forms given them, but a complete and attractive record, 
which we may well call a chronicle in stone. Telling as it does 
of the growth of a people from the days of small things to un- 
common power and a great part in settling many countries, we 
may also well say, that their home set fast in the bounding sea, 
— first, and more than three hundred years under the eagles of 
Rome ; last, and almost as long, the throne of wider dominion 
than hers, — unlike any other, theirs truly, is the Imperial Island, 
which millions who speak its tongue feel as its people do, is 
also their old home. 

The history of America does not really begin with the coloni- 
zation along the Atlantic coast. One of her Eastern families 
settling in the far West in one sense indeed begins a history 
then ; but no small part of what led to it and shapes the new 
life grew up in the place left behind ; and there are ties still 
kept unbroken. So we in the New World, — Norse, German, 
or English, — all one in kindred back in the past, look to an 
old home over the sea where a part of the race tarried for a 
long while, where another part has lived longer, and read its 
stone chronicle. 

Personal observations made in a dozen tours in as many 
years are the foundation of what the writer has to tell, to- 
gether with the Notebooks in which day by day he wrote of 
what he had seen, and without which he would not have vent- 



X PREFACE. 

ured upon these pages. Descriptions of scenery, views, and the 
condition, material, and color of buildings, and more, are from 
notes made on the spot. With but few exceptions, he has seen 
all the structures he has described, and many of them, espe- 
cially the cathedrals, he has repeatedly visited. 1 In addition, a 
fair collection of books, plans, and plates relating to every 
work has helped, and on it, of course, the writer relied in the 
historical passages. Foot-notes (growing shorter towards the 
end, as does the available room) show the titles of many books 
that give far more detail than is possible in a volume such as 
the present. No full guide into the vast mass of English local 
literature could be thought of, for that alone would fill a large 
book, nor could the often abundant traditional and literary asso- 
ciations be more than mentioned, here and there, while follow- 
ing a history for which the space was confined. Authority has 
been found in a good English work for each statement that 
must be obtained from books ; but numerous references have 
been omitted, other than the foot-notes just mentioned. 2 

The chief English historical monuments have been grouped 
or indicated so that they can be easily found by others, who 

1 The writer has not seen Lymne (p. 27), several of the smaller monastic 
ruins briefly described, the group of castles in Southwestern Wales, Leeds (p. 333) 
and Berkeley (p. 334) castles, and Hatfield House (p. 375) and Houghton Hall 
(p. 386) ; but all of these are parts of the stone chronicle that could not be omitted, 
and of all he has texts and plates. 

2 In addition to the care a stranger must take when writing about a land far 
from his own, he will find that some of the best books by the natives might at 
times lead him astray if he chanced to be unwary. For instance, Grose (on large 
paper, 1797, ii. 63), under a large lettered head, moves Exeter and other places 
into Dorsetshire ; Dr. Bruce moves Criffell into Dumfriesshire ; the text of Nash's 
" Mansions," one of the most magnificent English works of its kind (the original 
imperial folios), says that Hatfield was "probably designed in the early part of 
the reign of Elizabeth [1558-1603], the date of the building, being 1611 ;" and 
even Mr. Ruskin in his " Seven Lamps" (second edition, p. 92) speaks of "the 
pitiful little pigeon-holes which stand for doors in the east front of Salisbury." 
One unacquainted with the cathedral might suppose that there are doors at the 
east, although, as Mr. Ruskin of course knows, there are none, as is usually the 
case with mediaeval cathedrals ; his energy of expression about one of the noblest 
churches in England has disturbed the points of compass. In the spelling of 
names, also, a sufficient variety in some words can be found in recent books to 
meet Mr. Weller's conditions, and figures (like the dimensions on pages 108-9) 
are as diversely stated. Of course as parts of the books mentioned these are 
mere slips, although they might mislead ; yet they amount to as much as the basis 
of some so-called criticism. 



PEEPACE. Xi 

will be spared some of the writer's earlier labor. While fol- 
lowing a definite plan of his own, he finds that he is not design- 
ing after Mr. Hare or Herr Baedeker, but, rather, is doing in 
some measure what John Leland began in 1538, just before the 
great changes that ensued. Although like the great antiquary 
the writer has had a " Serche for Englandes Antiquitees," his 
has not been " the laboriouse Journey " of the author of the 
" Itinerary," but a good share of the pleasant travel possible in 
our time in order to see for himself the stone chronicle of the 
mother land, after which he has tried to arrange its very scat- 
tered chapters in something of the order in which they were 
composed. This order of time can be followed through the 
earlier periods, as well as the monastic age, and what might be 
called the times of the Great Residences, — those very striking 
monuments of the past three centuries in England ; but it 
cannot be as well followed through ecclesiastical history. Of 
the latter since the Conquest, the chief illustrations are the 
cathedrals, — the noblest of English monuments, — with parts 
dating throughout eight centuries. They cannot be properly 
described unless grouped, and each of them is treated by itself, 
as also must be some other classes of works belonging especially 
to shorter periods. No fair idea of the relative importance or 
interest of the historical monuments of a country can be formed 
without seeing a great number of them, and also many in other 
countries, often in places little visited, at a cost of labor little 
understood by persons who have not mapped out and visited a 
country in this way ; and where one has, a record of the result 
may properly be made. 1 

1 Here it should be stated that the writer's book, the "Historical Monuments 
of France," was written after similar observation and from his OM'n rather bulky 
notes, aided by many plates and not a few good books. As he had hoped to turn 
attention to the immense number of such monuments owned by France, and her 
efforts to save them, he arranged the text with less regard to chronology than to 
geography, for the better help to travellers ; but this mode is impracticable in re- 
gard to England. Founded also on observation and his Notebooks, is the writer's 
" Lands of Scott," in which the places and objects associated with Scott's life and 
works are described as the writer found them ; and the outlines of his stories 
and of sufficient history are given to show their connection. These two books 
and the present volume, while thus pointing out a great number of places or 
works, will accordingly stand not as guide-books subject to alteration as changes 
occur, but as, in nearly all cases, the record of an observer. 



Xii PREFACE. 

Travel in England and an explorer's little adventures might 
form the subject of a chapter or of paragraphs here and there, 
especially if the means of going around the country and the 
marked changes during five and twenty years past are de- 
scribed. It must, however^, be sufficient, in the present limited 
space, to say that travel in England can be very pleasant, and 
while not necessarily expensive, that a well-filled pocket-book 
and robust health will be good friends. 

Observers may, like some Englishmen, be critical, and think 
that time, war, neglect, or alterations have left few unharmed 
or genuine historical monuments ; indeed, that England is a 
country of wrecks and historical shams. But while plain truth 
or satire could find quite enough for unflattering comment, the 
objects, like the people around them, are apt to be better than 
they are sometimes said to be, and among both there is a great 
deal that is true and good. Along with persons who seem to 
be specially endowed to make their country a place to be 
shunned, and who are as representative as the tailors of Tooley 
Street, there is more courtesy than is always credited to Eng- 
lishmen. Two sorts of persons, not exclusively found in Eng- 
land, do excite aversion, — "those who rob and discredit their 
country by spoiling rare books or great works of art ; yet 
even of them, the writer may add, what is said in this book is 
seldom as strongly expressed as it has been by Englishmen. 
Eemarks on the importance of the preservation of the inval- 
uable monuments of England appear in the following pages. 

Anglomania may affect persons, but there is not much dan- 
ger that it will too much affect the American people. It is 
another matter to see and to read the chronicle in stone which 
England shows us, and some of our pleasantest days can be those 
spent in drives or walks on her hedge-lined roads, in strolls on 
charming footpaths or under the ivy-grown walls of her castles 
and gray cathedral towers — days the writer feels he lives again 
while his pen moves over these pages ; and a mild, hazy sun- 
shine seems to light the way as he often has found it brighten- 
ing the exquisite old island. 

If the world is losing charms of the past, and we cannot 
but feel a regret at the loss, it is in the main much improved. 



PREFACE. Xlii 

Causes which have estranged great families of the English- 
speaking races gradually have less, or no, influence. Plain 
sense, sound political economy, and devotion to progress and 
freedom among all of them, prompt to good work for the pres- 
ent and future. What they have to do together to make the 
world better has been already done well, but their work is as 
yet little more than begun. 

We who have no regard for persons who take our ancestors 
from their true relations of time, place, and thought, and try 
to show that they were bad or ignoble, but who feel that fairly 
judged they were in their own day, with' all which belonged to 
it, never surpassed by the founders of any nation on earth, can 
in the same spirit read the story of the people on the old island. 
Like our own people led through trials and triumphs to mar- 
vellous success in the end, meeting reverses but never actually 
conquered, comparing well with any others in their successive 
ages, they now, like us, have an ancestry they can be glad of 
and proud of, to be treated with justice and held in due honor. 

The stone chronicle of England cannot be read well by eyes 
other than those which look with sympathy on the men of the 
past and the work of their hands. To such eyes the gray text 
will show the great story it holds, garlanded with the bright 
daisies, green hawthorn or ivy, and red-berried holly which 
the old painters loved and drew on the leaves of their books, 
but which in the monumental record of England spread around 
the stone letters a beauty given by no mortal hand. 

J. F. H. 

Charlestown, Mass., 
March 10, 1886. 



THE IMPERIAL ISLAND. 



ENGLAND, by her position and formation, is peculiarly 
fitted to become a country where one of the most im- 
portant of all national histories has been created ; where a 
modern people, on restricted territory, — as were the ancient 
Greeks and Romans, — have grown from early obscurity and 
rudeness to world-wide power and the highest civilization in 
their times. With bounds that the sea forever sets around her 
narrow limits, and that the winds and waves have guarded 
from invasion through eight centuries, since the races that 
compose her people became established there, she has a unique 
stronghold. Placed in a latitude far north, she yet has warmth 
brought by ocean currents from the south, and thus a climate 
seldom very hot or cold, that seems to impart its equable con- 
ditions to the people and prevent the disadvantages of frigid 
temperature or the enervation often incident to too great heat. 
The soil, if varied and often not the best, has proved sufficient, 
and beneath it are stored vast amounts of treasure of practical 
importance ; there is little silver or gold, but an incalculable 
amount of tin and iron — known for two thousand years, it 
may be — together with immense beds of coal, reserved to be- 
come in recent times the sources of enormous wealth. There 
is little waste room, and the compactness of the country is 
shown by a few measurements. A straight line drawn obliquely 
from the North Foreland, east, to Land's End, west, where 
England is by far the widest, is only three hundred and twenty 
miles in length; from Lowestoft Ness to the most western 
point of Shropshire, the widest midland part, is one hundred 
and fifty-eight miles ; while from Hartlepool southwesterly to 



14 THE IMPERIAL ISLAND. 

Morecombe Bay, the breadth is only seventy-five miles. From 
the latitude of the Lizard Point, south, to Berwick at the ex- 
treme north, the distance is not quite four hundred miles. 

The features of the surface and the coast are sufficiently 
diversified to have had effects of importance on the history of 
the country, as well as to adapt it to the needs of a people 
at once agricultural and commercial, and to afford a pleasant 
variety of scenery, generally of a charming rural nature. A 
range of lofty hills marks much of the oblique northern bound- 
ary, thence reaches southward through the centre, spreading 
into Durham through Northumberland, branching into the most 
elevated mountain district of the kingdom in Westmoreland 
and Cumberland, broadening into a great broken highland tract 
in the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, and at length 
concentrating in the High Peak of Derbyshire. Thence it con- 
tinues, and irregularly marks the backbone of the country, 
through Derby, Stafford, Warwick, Worcester, and Gloucester 
shires, and blends with a long and irregular succession of high 
hills that extend from Land's End to Dover Cliffs. Elsewhere, 
especially in eastern Yorkshire, are also hilly regions. North- 
ward from the Thames, except at a few points, the eastern 
coast and large extents of inland country are quite low, or 
flat. The rivers are usually small and unnavigable for large 
vessels, but the sea helps to make the lower Severn, Humber, 
Thames, and Mersey broad and noble routes for shipping. 
Harbors are not numerous or large, but Plymouth, Portsmouth, 
and Southampton are magnificent exceptions. 

Extensive forests, moors, and swamps covered a great deal 
of the country, and wild animals were numerous in the earlier 
historic times ; yet, it appears, there were also considerable 
tracts of pasture and cultivated land, the extent of which has 
increased, for a long while slowly, until they now cover a large 
part of the surface. These forests and swamps had for many 
centuries important effects upon the grouping and history of 
the people, especially during the Saxon period. 

The history of England presents marked divisions, to be suc- 
cessively reviewed. First was the ancient British period, the 



EARLY BRITAIN. 15 

interest of which has become mainly archaeological, and that 
will be treated briefly on these pages. Next followed the four 
centuries of Roman domination, then the long period called 
the Saxon, when the German races, through a series of inva- 
sions and conflicts, obtained control of the country, — a period 
that will -also be briefly reviewed, for, notwithstanding its real 
importance, there are few monuments of it spared until our 
times, and it must, in this book, yield space for the more in- 
teresting and important periods that ensued. These are the 
Norman and the established English, the last of which may be 
said to fill the past seven centuries. 

EAELY BKITAIN. 

The ancient British period began at an uncertain date, and 
blended with the Roman during the first century of the Chris- 
tian era. To a great extent the country retained its primitive 
wildness, but the population scattered through it was, ap- 
parently, not small, and although said to have been barbarous, 
possessed more than the rudiments of civilization. Society had 
been developed to the early forms of clanship, or of bodies with 
a chief, that generally were not hostile to each other. Of the 
arts of peace, the people understood agriculture in some degree, 
and how to raise flocks and herds ; they had a commerce and 
a metal coinage ; they built vessels in which they could trav- 
erse stormy seas ; they mined and worked in tin and iron ; 
they had towns, but do not seem to have built great works, 
except for their religion, for which, however, they built like 
giants. In the arts of war, they knew how to contrive and 
make arms far superior to those used by modern savages, — 
among them formidable chariots armed with knives. They 
were a strong, imperious people, fond of freedom, capable of 
learning much, and of using circumstances for their own ad- 
vantage, and, indeed, in certain ways were not unlike some of 
their modern successors. 

Their religion, orally transmitted, died with many of its 
votaries on Anglesea, and has become a myth. It was in some 
respects a cruel superstition, yet it served as the guardian of 



16 EARLY BRITAIN. 

such learning as existed in the country, and inspired obedience 
and reverence among the laity. Most of its existing monu- 
ments are in the middle-southern counties, and they are the 
chief memorials of the early population spared by time. 

Stonehenge} the largest relic of the primitive stone works in 
England, is about eight miles from Salisbury, and is reached 
from that attractive city by a road that introduces many of 
the quiet, charming features of old English rural scenery. 
Along the way are hedgerows and large trees, neat cottages, 
and some quaint ivy-draped houses, Tudoresque in style, and 
little gray old country churches set amid green burial-grounds. 
At length the road leads out across an elevated undulating 
tract of bare and grassy land, where sheep are pastured. There 
the attention is arrested by a group of high, dark stones that 
stand in bold relief against the sky, and as they are approached, 
show that they belong to a now broken circle of flat mono- 
liths, six feet in width, three and a half feet thick, rising about 
twelve and a half feet above the ground. Once they supported 
a continuous row of thirty covering stones, of which only six 
remain in place, and surrounded a smaller circle now almost 
destroyed. A little southwest of the centre is a huge flat altar, 
measuring three and a half by seventeen feet, and around it, 
forming a horse-shoe figure, were five vast trilithons, each with 
two upright stones capped by a horizontal third stone. All the 
five were similar in form, but different in size, the largest of 
them, now prostrate, being on the outside about seventeen feet 
wide and twenty-seven feet long. About half of these stones 
are standing, and, like the others mentioned, are a hard " ter- 
tiary sandstone, which is found upon the chalk in the neighbor- 
hood," and is of a pale-buff or whitish color, but has grown 

1 See " Stonehenge. The most notable antiquity of Great Britain, vulgarly- 
called Stone-Heng, on Salisbury Plain, restored by Inigo Jones," etc., folio, 
London, 1655. See Armstrong, Atjdley, Camden, Sir R. C.FIoare's " Ancient 
Wilts," vol. i. ; also several works named in " Lowndes's Manual," 2522 (1864), 
and Stukelet, Wm., " Stonehenge, a Temple restored to the British Druids," 
folio, London, 1740 ; Wood, J., " Choir Gaur, vulgarly called Stone-henge, on 
Salisbury Plain, described, restored, and explained," 8°, Oxford, 1747 ; Col. Sir 
Henry James (Director-General of the Ordnance Survey), " Plans and Photo- 
graphs of Stonehenge," etc., folio, 1867. 




A- 



STONEHENGE. 17 

extremely gray on the exposed surfaces. The weather-wear 
of twenty centuries or more has imparted to them a most 
impressive hoariness, that has spread through the very lichens 
and thick mosses with which they are almost covered. A sort 
of rampart, also circular, about three hundred feet across, sur- 
rounded the mysterious structure, while scattered thickly for 
miles around, are tumuli, nearly every one of which contained 
the cinerary urns, the arms, and other relics of the dead. 

Stonehenge, 1 indeed, is now the wreck of a once vast West- 
minster Abbey of the ancient Britons, that imagination only 
can reanimate. There are no inscriptions, and it dates back 
into the shadows of conjectured history ; yet we may reasonably 
think that it was a widely-known and central temple of the 
Druids, and that around it the ashes of the chiefs and noted 
personages were interred. The power that held the learning, 
exercised the leading influence, and maintained the strongest 
bond of unity, throughout the country, seems to have had here 
one of its principal establishments. Its priests were the most 
formidable moral force opposed to the invading Romans, whose 
conquests could not be completed until Druidism was crushed ; 
but only the terrible incursions of the Saxons, made four cen- 
turies and longer afterwards, and not the Roman arms, seem 
to have overwhelmed the people, and to have left slight traces 
of their presence in the land. The history of the Britons 
meanwhile blended with that of the dominion of the masters 
of the ancient world. 

Stonehenge, while it may now be ranked as the great repre- 
sentative memorial of the Britons, is by no means the sole relic 
of their work. At Avebury, seven miles from Marlborough, is 
Silbury Hill, the largest Barrow in Great Britain, " 2,027 feet 
in circumference at the base, and 120 at the summit ; its slop- 
ing height is 316 feet, its perpendicular 170 feet," its area 
upwards of five acres. Near by was another huge round temple, 
badly mutilated in recent times, so that of 189 original stones, 

1 Of various engraved views, one in Jones's " Stoneheng Restored" (1655) 
may be compared with one of the best modern, given by Sir R. C. Hoare in his 
" Ancient Wilts," i. 153, or Higgins's view here reproduced. The views given 
by Sir H. James are photographs. 

2 



18 EARLY BRITAIN. 

only 76 were left in 1722, and in 1812 only 15, five of which 
had fallen ; for during the interval, 61 of the stones were used 
in building roads and cottages. Indeed, so great has been the 
destruction that although the temple was far larger than that 
at Stonehenge, the remains are of much less interest. An 
irregularly circular rampart, measuring 4,442 feet around the 
top, enclosed an area of more than 28 acres, in which there 
were two circles of large upright stones. Two avenues defined 
by upright stones led to it. Dr. Stukeley, who had studied 
them, thought they were built to represent a serpent. One of 
them terminates in a third circle, that he thought was the 
head, about half a mile from Avebury. This avenue suggests 
the wonderful and mightier alignments at Carnac, in Morbihan, 
upon the coast of Brittany, and is an evidence of kindred faith 
and people in the two places. Other evidence is also given by 
dolmens, the most notable of which in England may be that in 
central Kent, now called " Kitt's Cotty House," that some have 
thought to have been built for sacrifices, but like dolmens found 
in France, it was probably a tomb. Another temple stood at 
Rollright (Rollerich), near the southern point of Warwickshire, 
and originally contained sixty (?) stones, from five to seven 
feet high, placed in a circle 105 feet in diameter. Tumuli, or 
graves are found in many places, as seems natural. In several 
places there are also cromlechs, of from one to three stones, or 
with four that form a sort of table, as at Madron, Cornwall, 
where the top is 19 feet in length, and 47 in girth, a structure 
that seems to have been a tomb. At Constantinc there is 
one with a huge top like a boulder, that must weigh about 750 
tons. Its length is 33 feet, and its circumference about 100 ; 
its origin probably was natural. Another very curious object 
which Nature, may have placed and the Druids used, is the great 
Logan Stone, close to Land's End. Its weight is over sixty 
tons, and it is poised upon a lofty cliff above the sea so accu- 
rately that it can be made to oscillate. The cliffs are granite, 
in enormous blocks, fantastically piled, grown dark through 
age, or hoary with thick byssus moss, and command very strik- 
ing views upon the sea, and in both directions far along the 
wild, bold shore. 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 19 

Authentic history, that tells us little of the ancient Britons 1 
before they bowed to the supremacy of Rome, presents them 
during its continuance with more distinctness, yet as subject 
to the imperial race that determined the character of the suc- 
ceeding, the second period of Britain. 

ROMAN BRITAIN. 2 

The Romans had subdued the hostile tribes of Gaul, and the 
victorious legions reached its northern shores, from which they 
looked across a narrow sea upon an almost unknown land, 
home of the kinsmen and the allies of the bold Veneti. They 
desired to know more of the land and its inhabitants. Its 
mines and pearls may have been tempting ; the ambition of the 
greatest general of that age, or the expansive Roman spirit, 
may have stirred the legions to advance. But certainly before 
them was a country from which hostile forces might make 
dangerous attacks on Gaul, such as Gaul had made on North- 
ern Italy. Security for Rome was there obtained by conquest, 
that, perhaps, must be pressed farther northward. If the pur- 
pose now seems doubtful, an event is known. In 55 b. c, 
the Romans, led by Julius Ceesar, entered Britain. They en- 
countered bold resistance by the natives, but secured them- 
selves upon the flat land of the coast of eastern Kent. Their 
expedition was for observation, but involved them in hard 
fighting and some perils, over all which they, as usual, pre- 
vailed. They soon returned to Gaul, but in the following 
spring, a stronger force (2,000 cavalry, and 30,000 foot) was 

1 For a condensed account of ancient British or Celtic antiquities see Aker- 
man, J. Y., " An Archaeological Index," etc., 8°, London, 1847. Also List II. of 
Monuments (and p. 16 of this vol.). 

2 Besides general histories, like Hume's and Camden's, see Hubner's "Inscrip- 
tiones Britannia Latinse" (vol. vii. of Corpus Ins. Lat., Berlin, 1873); " Monu- 
menta Hist. Brit. ; " " Archa?ologia of the Roy. Soc. of Antiquaries ; " " Archasologia 
Cantiana," and publications of other learned societies. Also several chronicles 
and maps named on p. 50, and other notes herein on Roman Britain ; Thack- 
eray (F.) "Ecclesiastical and Political State of ancient Britain under the Em- 
perors," 2 v. 8°, 1843 ; the works of Gildas ; and of Nennius ; Ptolemy, in the 
editions of 1482 and 1486, the map in which is the first executed on wood ; the 
" Iter Britanniarum ; " and part of the " Antonine Itinerary " relating to Great 
Britain, published under the direction of the Master of the Rolls. (There are 
several earlier editions.) 



20 THE IMPERIAL ISLAND. 

landed on the shore explored the previous year. The Romans 
then marched westward, fought the Britons twice, near Canter- 
bury it is thought, and elsewhere on their route. They crossed 
the Thames at Conway Stakes, almost a hundred miles from 
where they landed, overcame their allied enemy, turned north, 
and went as far, it may be, as St. Alban's, and completed the 
defeat of Cassivellaunus, the chief leader of the Britons. Cagsar 
then retired to Gaul, leaving no armed force or stronghold in 
the country. An invasion to achieve its conquest was not 
undertaken until ninety-seven years had passed ; then, a. d. 43, 
the Emperor Claudius sent Aulus Plautius with more than 
50,000 men to undertake the work. They subjugated tribes 
and states along the Severn, and from the west pushed east 
and north, but the conquest of all Britain was not completed 
until nearly forty years more had passed, a result for which 
much was done by Agricola, one of the greatest of the Roman 
generals. 

The country was secured by gradual advances and judicious 
dispositions of strong works and garrisons ; but success was 
not easily or rapidly obtained, and was not continuous. When 
seventeen years had passed in obstinate defences and attacks, 
the Druids had retired to Anglesea, and from that then remote 
and well-protected refuge exercised their still great influence 
in maintaining the resistance by the Britons. Nero, who suc- 
ceeded Claudius, it has been said, thought seriously of abandon- 
ing the country, but Suetonius, whom he sent to govern it, 
obtained a signal victory on Anglesea, where he almost de- 
stroyed the Druids. This great victory, however, was at first 
offset by an immense uprising of the Britons in the eastern 
portions of the country. There the Romans had already 
founded towns or cities, and had practised the oppression 
incident to military conquest. They had infamously treated 
Boadicea, queen of the Iceni, and her wrongs and energy aroused 
the natives to furious revenge, and a war for freedom that re- 
sulted in the destruction of Camalodunum, Verulamium, and 
Londinium, and from three to four score thousand Romans or 
their subjects, and indeed in obliging the Romans to remain 
on the defensive during nearly sixteen years. Frontinus then 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 21 

renewed aggressive movements, and Agricola continued them 
and marched far into Caledonia and established the extreme 
extent of the Roman dominion there, and throughout Britain, 
that was permanent. It ended only in 448, when the vast 
empire, by degrees, became dismembered, when the gloom of 
a long night that lasted nearly a thousand years spread over 
what had been, and was to be, the world of civilized mankind. 

A power that could maintain itself almost four centuries in 
one of its most distant provinces, and then depart to be pur- 
sued by the entreaties of the people to return, proved that it 
had immense vitality and value. When the oldest man in 
Britain had been born since Plautius entered it, the Romans 
were to rule there for a longer period than is covered by the 
history of French and English rule in North America. Four 
centuries, required for changes that have so marked England 
since the reign of Richard III. and the union of the Roses, or 
marked France since Louis XI. was king, or Spain since Fer- 
dinand was battling with the Moslems, but filled up the measure 
of the time for Roman rule in Britain. Towards the first of it 
there were oppressions, towards the last mistakes in the admin- 
istration, but almost throughout, the rulers must have used great 
wisdom, and the people must have found advantages in their 
condition. The scattered fragments of the Roman work that 
are now known, and scanty histories, show that the conquerors 
spread their arts and institutions through the country ; that 
the population was considerable, or was large ; that there was 
peace, and a prosperity sufficient to support it, and produce 
degrees of luxury. The native races, wild or slightly civilized, 
were Romanized, imperfectly it may be, but made not unwilling 
or unprofitable subjects of the empire. Many of the ruling 
race were mingled with them, and maintained the Roman 
usages and manners. Extensive forests and morasses that 
abounded were diminished, and the fields for crops or herds 
increased. Good roads for military or for civil uses reached 
to numerous important points. There were strong forts, large 
towns, and country seats. As Britain was a province, so in 
various ways it was provincial. None of the highest art of 
Italy was practised there, none of the greatest works were built 



22 KOMAN BRITAIN. 

there. The nature of the materials obtainable, if not other 
limits of resources, in most of the more settled portions of the 
country, made it difficult or quite impossible to raise such 
edifices as the enormous amphitheatres that have resisted all 
assaults in other lands. No valleys seem to have compelled 
the building of the immense arcades for aqueducts required 
for large cities. Hence the structures found in Italy, Spain, 
and France were never needed or attempted in Britain ; but 
their uses were undoubtedly well known- and were supplied 
by lesser works. 

The first great requisite of Roman rule was military strength, 
especially defensive strength, and that, with its results, has left 
impressive monuments. The first endeavor was to build, then 
constantly to hold, strong works to guard the ports through 
which communication with the continent must be maintained. 
These were arranged with no great intervals along the eastern 
and southeastern coast, 1 especially the latter. Regnum (Chi- 
chester?), southwest of London, was a little inland; Portus 
Adurni (Aldrington ?) was south near Brighton ; Anderida 
Portus (Pevensey) was on the Channel where it is contracted 
to the Straits; and near their narrowest part were Portus 
Lemanis (Lymne), " one of the keys of Britain," and the well- 
known Dubris (Dover). Midway on the eastern front of Kent, 
towards the German Ocean, was Rutupice (Richborough) ; on 
the north coast was Regidbium (Reculver) ; on the Medway, 
near the sea, was Durobrivce (Rochester) ; and on the south 
bank of the Thames Vagniacce (Northfleet ?). Of these nine 
stations, the five from Pevensey to Reculver were the most 
important, and of any of them the most impressive relics are 
at Rutupice. Nowhere else in Britain are there Roman ruins 
as grand. South of the Alps or Lyons, such as they are might 
be found or looked for, but here in the lonely fields, once a 
mere outer edge of the Roman world, they inspire wonder and 
surprise. 

Rutupice, supposed to be a few miles only from the spot 
where Caesar landed, was, not improbably, the chief sea-station 

1 See Lewin, T., on the Castra of the Littus Saxonicum (read 1867), 
" Archaeologia," xli. 421-52. 



RUTUPI.E. 23 

that the Romans had in Britain. 1 Its position shows that great 
and curious changes have occurred in the coast lines ; for allu- 
vial deposits have spread an extensive plain between it and the 
present shore, leaving the castrum, that once looked down on 
the surf, far inland, but still crowning a bluff that, although of 
moderate height, is commanding. Eastward it is cut sharply 
off by excavations for a railway on which the nearest station 
is at Sandwich, two miles distant. Close beneath the bluff a 
dirty little stream, the river Stour, winds through the flats. 
Towards the west and south extends a very level, open coun- 
try, and towards the north a tract that is even lower, but that 
northeastward rises, nearly a mile away, into a slightly elevated 
point. The whole of this wide region shows few houses, trees, 
or hedges, and is used for farming. On the highest swell stand 
the amazing walls, three sides of an immense quadrangle, open 
eastward on the bluff, and measuring, internally, 466 by 482 
feet. Even now the average height is twenty feet above the 
ground, into which the foundations extend five feet ; but the 
north wall, the most entire, is throughout nearly thirty feet 
high. True Roman conception of solid work has made the 
walls, still knit like Nature's conglomerates, eleven feet and a 
quarter thick for the first six feet above the ground, and higher 
up only seven inches thinner, while some parts are thirteen 
feet thick. Dense veils of ivy, such as Nature spreads in 
England, have covered a great deal of the masonry, yet there 
are many places where its structure can be studied. Small 
stones faced and squared, and now deep gray, are laid on the 
outside in belts separated by much narrower bands of thin, 
bright-red bricks. From many parts this finish has been 
stripped, but the exterior of the northern wall retains it, show- 
ing seven belts of stone, each with seven courses. On the inside 
the wall is of ruder structure, but is not less strong, composed 
as it is of split or rounded small flint-stones, arranged with care 

1 See King, E., "Munimenta Antiqua " (4 vols.), folio, London, 1799-1805, 
vol. ii., and Smith, C. R., " Account of Excavations at Riehborough," etc., 4°, 
London, 1850-52. 

Among the not numerous views of Richborough, those in King's " Munimenta " 
are good, but too large for this book ; those by Eairholt in Smith's "Account " are 
also good, and are reproduced. 



24 THE IMPERIAL ISLAND. 

and thoroughly embedded in good mortar that is lavishly em- 
ployed. The exterior of the southern wall has not only been 
robbed of its facing, but excavations have been made in the 
core, and even parts of the structure throughout, as is the case 
with the western wall, have been demolished. Greater strength 
was given the works by a round tower eighteen and a half feet 
in diameter placed at. each western angle. 

At present the large area enclosed by the walls is a flat bean- 
field " of made earth, from three to four feet thick," broken 
only at a short distance northeast of the centre, where there is 
a curious and very massive structure that now hardly rises to 
the surface of the ground. The upper part, about five feet in 
height, is a rectangle (22 by 46 feet) with long narrow arms 
(7£ by 32^) that make its shape that of an unusual cross. 
This rests on an immense foundation (104 to 107£ by 144 to 
149) five feet thick, apparently a solid mass of concrete formed 
" of boulders and coarse mortar." Underneath this platform 
is a structure (94 by 132) extending more than twenty-two feet 
downward, to which depth it was explored in 1843, but neither 
entrance nor interior chamber could be found, and the earth 
then removed was replaced. Previously the masonry had been 
supposed to be the foundation of a lighthouse or the temple 
of the castle, and to have been used for an extremely early 
Christian chapel. But the requirements of the Roman garri- 
son, the risks of war, the nature of the ground, and the posi- 
tion and shape of the vast lower structure are much more 
suggestive of a granary or arsenal, or rather, as the writer 
thinks more likely, of a water cistern ; a supposition strength- 
ened by the fact that in 1843 springs were found towards the 
bottom. Some hints about the purpose of this massive and 
important work may be given by the enormous reservoir con- 
structed for the use of the Roman fleet upon the hill near 
Baias. 

A considerable degree of luxury must have existed here, for 
besides necessary buildings both inside and outside the cas- 
trum, white marble decorations, shown by fragments, were 
used, as well as pottery, glass, small bronzes, jewelry, and 
other articles which have also been discovered. Still more 



RUTUPI.E. 25 

valuable, historically, among the objects found here, are the 
coins, of which, says Mr. Smith, the number has been estimated 
at 114,000. Leland wrote above three hundred years ago that 
there had been, time out of mind, more Roman coins discovered 
here than anywhere else in the country. They bear dates from 
before the Christian era to about 423, or the time of the de- 
parture of the Romans. 

Rutupiae is briefly mentioned here and there in ancient 
histories, but its record is imperfect. It may have been 
founded about a.d. 43, and was enlarged and finished by 
Severus " about the year 205," and probably was one of the 
last places that the Romans left. The second legion, of which 
Vespasian was the commander, entered Britain in the reign of 
Claudius, and apparently remained there throughout the period 
of Roman rule, during the latter portion of which it was at 
Rutupiae. Originally the sea came close to the bluff, as has 
been shown by excavations that revealed its sandy shore and 
what appeared to have been a landing-place, but at an early 
date its action, perhaps helped by the river Stour, gradually 
formed the flats that now extend far eastward, and meanwhile 
Sandwich became the port of the neighborhood. Remains of 
minor buildings, already mentioned, found outside the castrum 
are chiefly towards the west ; but on the other hand, the well- 
made walls of what may have been a villa were found beside 
the bluff in 1846, and were destroyed to make room for the 
railway. Still more important were the remains of an amphi- 
theatre such as was used near an established garrison, occupying 
a site about quarter of a mile southwestward and commanding 
an extensive view. An ellipse about two hundred feet across 
from top to top was formed by a ridge a few feet high, and 
even after the ground had been cultivated for a long time the 
depth to the arena was still about a dozen feet. In 1849 
extensive excavations brought to light the outer wall, that was 
566 feet in circumference and three and a half feet thick, 
built of flint with a facing of chalk and tiles at the angles of 
the doorways. No remains of seats were, however, found. A 
large amount of the materials of the structure were perhaps 
employed in building Sandwich. 



26 THE ROMAN PORTS. 

The great quadrangle of the castrum at Rutupias, more than 
five acres in extent, as large as many city squares, with walls 
as high as our two or three storied houses, massive, ivy-clad, 
or hoary gray, is now almost unique. Its stones are unlettered, 
yet they form a vast inscription of profound significance. No 
dates or paragraphs of history can with such vivid power 
impress upon the mind the fact of the remoteness and long 
duration of the Roman rule in England. These huge ramparts 
were made solid for no scheme of temporary occupation, hut 
for a determined conquest. Peace and sure possession through 
the lives of many generations were maintained hy the wise and 
powerful masters of Rutupise, and then irresistible events com- 
pelled them to withdraw forever. Then, too, the surges of the 
German sea began to roll its sands, grain by grain, into the 
forsaken harbor, and to spread inch by inch flat lands far over 
places it had covered, until the long duration of the slow up- 
heaval through successive centuries was shown by the broad 
plain on which the old walls, garlanded with ivy, or gray with 
dense lichens, and protected only by their loneliness, look down 
unconquered by the assaults of time, but sadly mutilated by 
the greed or heedlessness of man. 

Hegulbium, now called Heculver, was the next great Roman 
station on the seacoast northward, and stands nearly midway 
between Whitstable and the well-known town of Margate. Here 
the shore has been much changed, but in the opposite direction 
from that near Richborough. The castrum, that covered nearly 
ten acres, was walled upon four sides, and originally stood on a 
river or inlet, " neer a mile " from the ocean. Leland wrote, 
about 1550, that the distance was reduced to almost "a quarter 
of a myle." In 1G85 the sea was close to the northern wall, 
and in 1780 had destroyed most of it, while now the waters have 
invaded a considerable part of the enclosure. Portions, or all, 
of the Roman works dated, it is thought, from the reign of 
Severus (194 to 211). Of the castrum, only fragments of the 
walls remain, about twelve feet thick, built of flint and pebbles, 
and without towers or the bonding courses of red brick usual 
in Roman construction. The works were, at an early date, 
used by the Saxons, when as masters they replaced the Ro- 



REGULBIUM. — DUBRIS. 27 

mans, and Ethelbert, fifth king of Kent, added a castle and 
palace, and Eadbert, about the year 700, built a college, that 
was dedicated to the Virgin Mary. The church (that of course 
was also built) was extremely interesting, and remained for 
ages to be subjected to the wisdom of the early years of the 
present century, when, with the exception of two large square 
western towers, it was demolished. The west part of the 
chancel showed a curious construction, the design and work- 
manship of which indicated that it must have dated from the 
later period of the empire. The work was not surpassed in 
age or interest by any other relic of Roman architecture then 
left in Great Britain. The wild Saxons, the degraded Middle 
Ages, and the simple-minded English of old times, preserved 
it as a portion of God's temple. The English of the nineteenth 
century, with their faultless wisdom, destroyed it, and made 
the vicar's house a gin-shop. Their superiority to their super- 
stitious fathers is evident, and of course we regret to learn that 
the speculators in the job of demolition came to grief, and 
something like a curse attended them. (Smith, 201, and Gen- 
tleman's Magazine, 1808-10.) The materials of history found 
here have not been numerous ; they include small objects, and 
considerable numbers of both Roman and Saxon coins, but no 
inscriptions, so far as the writer learns, have been discovered. 

Dub?'is, or Dovor, was the next great station southward from 
Rutupiae. The site crowned by its castle is perhaps unmatched 
in England, and still bears the Roman pharos, but a description 
of it will be given (p. 64) in connection with the great mediasval 
works that made the place the Rutupiae of the Normans, who 
used, and added much to, the Roman works they found here. 
Although the quay at Dover is the chief landing-place on the 
southeastern coast of Britain at the present day, the Romans 
seem to have made greater use of one that occupied a spot now 
two miles inland, and about a dozen miles westward. 

Portus Lemanis, now called Studfall Castle, in Lymne, 
stands on the south slope of a hill forming a portion of a 
range that extends inland. At the base there is now a broad 
flat territory, most of which, in Roman times, it is supposed, 
was insulated by a wide sound, through which the waters of a 



28 ROMAN PORTS. 

little river, the Limene, found one of two ways to the sea, 
instead of the single outlet they now have at some distance 
southward. All the region is secluded, agricultural, and quiet, 
and very unsuggestive of a military port ; yet in the midst of 
it there was once a large walled castrum, the relics of which 
are still prominent, although strangely disarranged. The east 
and west walls were built parallel ; the north wall was bent 
boldly forward so that it showed four faces at as many angles ; 
and all the walls were strengthened by half-elliptical or half- 
round solid towers. A land-slip, at some very distant date, 
descending from the northwest and the north, has pushed a 
great part of the walls, except the western, into curious con- 
fusion. They lie prostrate, shattered, or reclining, in enormous 
fragments, that are demonstrations of the binding strength of 
Roman mortar and the honesty of Roman work. Remains of 
buildings also have been found in the enclosure. 

This important camp was built, it seems, in later rather 
than in earlier Roman times, as is shown by some heavy stones 
beneath the gate, that were apparently taken from old build- 
ings, and had been subjected to the action of the sea. Only 
slight aid to historical knowledge is given here by inscriptions, 
as unfortunately is the case at other Roman fortresses along 
the coast : but the ruins form an interesting memorial of the 
Roman era, and the remarkable changes wrought around them 
by nature, while clearly shown, add their important part to the 
scenery that gives the site of the effaced port an impressive 
setting. 

The great camps of which remains exist, on the seashore 
west of Lyinne, at Pevensey in Sussex (Atiderida Portus), 
and at Porchester (Portus Magnus} in Hampshire, were much 
altered by the Normans, and will be described among their 
military works, with which they were incorporated. 

On the seacoast northward from the Thames, the Roman 
camps were not as numerous. In Essex, all, or nearly all, the 
stations or the towns were inland. Camaloclunum was perhaps 
the most important, and was at Colchester, or some say Mal- 
don. On the coast of Suffolk, near the southeastern corner of 
the present county, was Otlwna (Felixstowe), submerged like 



ROMAN POETS. 29 

other places on these low soft shores. By far the largest 
Roman camp or work of which remains exist in Suffolk, or 
upon the eastern coast, is Garianonum, now Burgh Castle, four 
miles westsouthwest of Yarmouth. It is supposed to have 
been built about a. d. 49, during the reign of Claudius, and 
stands near the inner end of Breydon Water, that has openings 
to the sea, and is suggestive of a natural dock five miles in 
length. The walls of Burgh stand upon slightly rising ground, 
and form three sides of a square, with an area of nearly five 
(or four ?) and three quarters acres. The walls upon two of 
the sides are very well preserved ; on one side they have been 
injured ; and the fourth, as at Rutupise and Lymne, does not 
seem to have been protected by them. They show the usual 
bands of brick, and where least broken, are fourteen feet in 
height and nine feet thick. The works were strengthened by 
six or more round and solid towers, almost detached, and 
nearly fourteen feet diameter. Small objects and a burial- 
place have been found on' the grounds. 

In Lincolnshire there were several stations inland, and but 
few near the sea. The lack of harbors and the nature of the 
coast did not permit, or possibly require, camps on these shores. 
Vainona (Wainfleet), two or three miles from the ocean, 
where the land projects most into it, was the one place for a 
great distance that afforded shelter, and became at least a seat 
of the trade in salt. Boston, the chief port, it has been thought 
by reason of remains that have been found, was once a Roman 
town defended by a fort near where the river Witham widens 
at its entrance to the sea. This fort may have been one of 
many that it is supposed the Romans built along the eastern 
and the southern coasts of Britain to protect them from attacks 
of the barbarians when the latter had begun to invade the 
empire. There was a strong reason for defences at the en- 
trance of the Witham, for upon it was a city of importance 
through the period of Roman rule, and subsequently, Lindum, 
since called Lincoln. 

On the coast of Yorkshire and of Durham there were even 
fewer camps. The stations were along the roads, and chiefly 
on one of them now known as the Ermine Street, that 



30 THE ROMAN WALL. 

stretched through England from the Tyne to Kent, and was 
the main line of communication with the north, and with the 
greatest military works, or the greatest of all the works that 
the Romans built in Britain, — the walls across the island for 
protection from the wild tribes of the north and from insur- 
gents southward. 

The Roman Wall, 1 as it is distinctively called, had its origin 
with Agricola, who, among the operations of his expedition 
into Caledonia (in 80 to 84 ?), made a rampart, possibly across 
the island from Newcastle to west of Carlisle. Some think 
that this was repaired and a new line, or vallum, formed about 
a. d. 121 by Hadrian, and that the climate and the devastations 
by the enemy impaired the works, and about 207, or later, a 
more formidable barrier was raised or strengthened north of 
it by Severus. These three works (if not, as some suppose, 
the parts of one design) not only differed thus in date, but in 
construction and position ; yet as their purpose was the same, 
so also was their general direction. They were from almost a 
mile to only twenty yards apart, generally forty or fifty yards, 
and formed thus a protected belt of land from sea to sea. The 
wall said to have been constructed by Severus was of stone, 
and was from twelve to fifteen feet in height, and had an aver- 
age thickness of eight feet, above which, on the outer side, was a 
battlement or parapet. In front of it towards the north, there 
was a ditch about a dozen feet in depth and thirty-six feet 
wide. There were 330 turrets (for the sentries ?), it is said, 
and at various distances, at the best strategic points, 81 strong 
forts, about a Roman mile apart. Along the inner or the 
southern side, were roads that gave communication with the 
leading military way across the country. This last was not 

1 See Horsley, John, "Britannia Romana," folio, 1732; 

" Lapidarium Septentrionale, or a Description of the Monuments of Roman 
Rule in the North of England," folio, Society of Antiquaries, Newcastle-upon- 
Tyne, 1875 ; 

Bruce, Rev. J. C, "The Roman Wall," etc., third and enlarged ed., 
plates, 4° and folio, 1867 ; also his " Wallet-Book (or Guide) of the Roman 
Wall," maps, etc., 16°, 1863. Northumberland, The Duke of, his privately 
printed "The Roman Wall and Other Remains in the North of England," etc., 
by H. McLauchlan, plates imp. folio, text 8°, 1857-58. Also, Hodgson's Hist. 
of Northumberland, iii., pt. 2, pp. 149-325. 



THE ROMAN WALL. 31 

used for fifteen hundred years after the Romans left, but was, 
in 1752, made part of the main road from Carlisle to New- 
castle. 

These various works seem indeed to form a single grand 
design, described by Stukeley as " a camp extending across the 
kingdom, and consequently fortified both ways," and, as 
McLauchlan thought, built at three periods, chiefly in the 
reign of Hadrian, — a supposition for which Dr. Bruce shows 
solid evidence. Some of the latest work done by the Romans, 
when they were preparing to leave Britain to its own defence, 
was the repair of this great bulwark. They alone appear 
to have had the skill required. Bede says, "They built a 
strong stone wall from sea to sea, in a straight line," near 
that of Severus, and of like dimensions; but most probably 
they only mended it. Some say that it was sixty-eight miles 
long. 

They then informed the Britons that they could no longer 
help them, and advised them to " handle their weapons like 
men, and undertake themselves the charge of engaging their 
enemies, who would not prove too powerful for them unless 
they were deterred by cowardice." (Bede, Ecc. Hist. 20, 21.) 
The Romans also gave them other valuable help, and then 
withdrew forever. The inarch southward of the last of all 
the legions, through the land where for four centuries they had 
maintained security or peace, and that their countrymen had 
civilized, was one of the sad, memorable movements in the 
course of history. The exigencies of the times, as well as 
Roman policy, had drawn large numbers of the strong young 
men of Britain into the imperial service on the continent; 
and the inhabitants, accustomed to rely upon the moral and 
material strength that Rome supplied, were left to their un- 
trained resources and efforts. The result was pitiful. The 
Scots and Picts, as the wild northern hordes were called, 
poured down upon the feebly guarded wall, broke through it 
like a pent-up torrent, and swept with remorseless devastation 
over towns and fields. And then for centuries there was 
slight peace in Britain, except here and there — and not with- 
out dire interruptions — in the cloisters of religion. 



32 THE EOMAN WALL. 

The walls, that seem to have required such constant care and 
mending when in service, naturally fell into decay when they 
had been abandoned. Dilapidation was increased as naturally 
by the population ; and as this was larger and more active 
towards each coast, there the most thorough changes were 
effected, until miles of the great work have disappeared, or are 
shown only by low fragments. Poverty, ignorance, and greed 
have found in it a ready quarry, of which they have made free 
use. The middle quarter is the most complete, or from the 
River Tipalt and the station Magna at Carvoran, westward, to 
Cilurnum or Chesters, near the river North Tyne, nearly 
eighteen miles eastward. This part rewards a very close 
attention ; and a visit to it is rendered remarkably attractive 
by the views obtained, not only of the wonderful work of the 
Romans, but also of the picturesque, wild, or noble scenes of 
nature. A description of it may be introduced with some 
advantage by a list of the chief camps or stations, as they 
stood from east to west, and of their Roman garrisons, the 
names of which show noticeably the shrewd manner in which 
men of various races were distributed for military duties. 
Britons served the empire on the continent, but very few of 
them apparently were posted here to guard their own country. 
The Wall began upon the Tyne, about three miles below New- 
castle ; and the successive stations and garrisons were as fol- 
lows, the letter c referring to the cohorts : — 

1. Segcdnnum, now Wallsend. c. 4, Lingones (Central Gaul). 

2. Pons iElii, now Newcastle. c. 1, Thracians. Cornavii. 

3. Contlercum, near Ben well. Astures, ala 1 (N. Spain). 

4. Vindobala, near Rntchester. c. 1, Frixagi (Frisians, N. Holland?). 

5. Hunnum, near Halton Chesters. Savinian ala. 

6. Cilurnum, now Chesters. c. 1, Vangiones. Astures, ala 2. 

7. Procolitia, now Carrawburgh. c. 1, Batavians (S.Holland), e. 1, Aqui- 

tanians. 

8. Boreovicus, now Housesteads. c. 1, Tungrians (military, 1,000 men). 

| Tindolana, now Chesterholm, 3 m. S. W. c. 4, Gauls.] - , 

9. iEsica, now Great Chesters. c. 2, Nervii. c. Rhaetians. c. 1, or 2, 

Astures. 

10. Magna, at Carvoran. c. 1, Batavians ? c. 2, Dalmatians, c. 1, 

Hamians (Syrians). 

11. Amboglanna, at Birdoswald. c. 1, Dacians (vElia Dacorum). 

[The above have been accurately ascertained. No inscriptions, as evidence, have been 
found west of this. Bruce, 1867, p. 69.] 



THE EOMAN WALL. 33 

12. Petriana. The " Petriana." 

13. Concavato, 1 at Rickerby. c. 2, Lergi. 

14. Luguvallium, at Carlisle. 

15. Advallum, at Carlisle. 

16. Axelodunum, 1 near Burgh upon 

Sands. c. 1, Spaniards. 

17. Gabrosentum, 1 near Drumburgh. c. 2, Thraeians. 

18. Tunnocelum, 1 near Bowness. c. 1. marine " iElia." 

The full length of the stone wall, from sea to sea, was sev- 
enty-three and a half English miles : the southern, or earthen, 
wall was six miles shorter, ending at Newcastle on the Tyne, 
and at Dykesfleld on the Solway. The whole number of the 
garrison along the Wall seems to have been about 12,000 men, 
sometimes a larger or a smaller number. There were also, 
north and south of this main line, supporting or outlying 
camps or stations, all or nearly all of which are now shown 
by mere fragments. 

The best plan for a visit to the most interesting portion of 
the Wall, when only one day can be given for it, is to start 
early from Newcastle by the train to Chollerford, and take a 
breakfast there at the neat stone inn, that seems to make 
almost the whole of the extremely little village, and then drive 
ten miles due west along or near the wall to Housesteads farm. 
Thence is a glorious walk of eight miles on the hills, and for 
a long way on the Wall itself, to Caw Gap, or a little farther, 
and across the fields to a highway that leads to Haltwhistle, 
where there is a station on the Carlisle and Newcastle line. 
Hexham (p. 271) can be visited upon this route back to the 
latter city. 

The relics of the Wall are scanty from Wallsend at the 
eastern end to the North Tyne, or nearly one third of its 
length. A bridge with two supporting castles crossed the 
river there, not far south of Chollerford. Upon the western 
bank are found remains of the large station of Cilurnum, in the 

1 These positions are according to Horsley, and the others are according to 
Rev. J. C. Bruce. In camps near the wall were stationed Germans, Gauls, Span- 
iards, Moors, and other cohorts of distant origin. Parts or all of the Second, 
Sixth, and Twentieth Legions served on the wall. The writer may add that he 
traversed miles of the wall or its site, with map and note-book, and that the 
latter is freely used in his description. 

3 



34 THE ROMAN WALL. 

noble park of Chesters. Its large trees, and others bordering 
the road, are charming, and remarkably contrasted with the 
bareness of the country to be traversed. Several interesting 
stones, inscribed or sculptured, have been found in this vicinity. 
The road beyond — the turnpike from Newcastle to Carlisle — 
is interesting as a modern strategic work, although now super- 
seded by the railway. It is the one built about 1752 to give 
communication then much needed, and for lack of which the 
forces under General Wade, assembled at the East in 1745 
to stop Prince Charlie, were made useless while the latter 
marched from Scotland into England through Carlisle. This 
road, for several miles from the North Tyne, is near the wall, 
and runs in long, straight reaches up and down the hills that 
roll in a continuous succession through the country. 

At Walwick, not far westward, is a fine view south and east 
across a beautiful and varied rural district with long, broad, 
but not high, swells of land, on which are green fields, scat- 
tered trees, or small forests. The road beyond ascends to the 
wide top of a tall ridge, whence, northward, ruins of the 
Roman works are seen. Tower Tay, a large hill, succeeds, 
marked by a curious old stone farm-house, that looks like a 
chapel, standing on the eastern slope. The view is similar to 
that at Walwick, but is wider, and sweeps over all the east, 
from north to south. Its interest is greater (though its extent 
is less) when one looks westward from the summit. The road 
is seen dipping far into a hollow ; northward is a long side- 
prospect; and in front, up a broad, grassy, rounded hill, extends 
a great reach of the Wall, — the most impressive portion yet 
presented, although its height has been sadly reduced. A 
bank of turf, or trees and shrubs, cover the present top, and 
beneath them are still found four to six courses of the south- 
ern facing-stones, — gray, squared, and each about a foot deep, 
and ten to twenty inches long. Across the "upper portions of 
this hill the wall has been destroyed, but the site is marked by 
a belt of straggling shrubs. There is again, at this place, a 
remarkably wide view from north to south, and farther on, 
a prospect that is not less than immense in every direction, 
over very broad, bare, undulating pastures on each side of the 



THE ROMAN WALL. 35 

wall. At Limestone Bank this view on all sides is continued, 
and includes the distant Cheviots. Thence a long dip of the 
road lies westward ; and beside it is the Vallum, still display- 
ing works that have been truly called gigantic, stretching 
through a hollow, and being perhaps the most distinct part 
spared. A section of the Roman military way once coexten- 
sive with the wall is here first seen. Here also the fosse of 
both wall and vallum has been cut through basalt, showing 
how undeviatingly the energetic ancient builders carried out 
their design. 

At Carrawburgh, a small and lonely stone farm-house, are 
the now low and grass-grown relics of the once large station 
Procolitia. Its distance from Cilurnum is about three and a 
half miles, and its area as many acres. The first cohort of 
Batavians garrisoned it, a. d. 237, and for a long time knew 
a land here strangely different from their native flats that now 
form Holland. East of them were Spaniards from Asturia, 
a people with whom Dutchmen were to have more strange 
acquaintance some twelve centuries later. West of them were 
Tungrians from near where now is Tongres in Belgium, a 
country destined to produce some friendly company for their 
posterity. The gateways of the station are discernible, but 
little else is left. Beyond Procolitia, there are four great 
swells of bare green pasture-land (called "mountain-waves" 
by a perhaps exaggerating antiquary), from which are wide 
views, especially towards the south. Relics of the Roman 
works are scanty through this region nearly all the way to 
Housesteads, — a place marked by an extremely lonely stone 
farm-house upon the south slope of a long and broken hill, 
nearly five miles from Procolitia. 1 

The crest, about a third of a mile from the road, is crowned 
by Borcovicus. The present tense may well be used to state 
that this great station is here, on its firm, basaltic platform, 
showing vividly its purposes, and still the most complete 

1 The writer adds, for the benefit of travellers in this secluded region, 
especially for those who go alone as he did, that it is best to be careful when 
crossing some of the fields, and avoid bulls or bullocks, from one of which he 
had a narrow escape. Few unprofessional persons will like to be forced to use 
devices of the Spanish arena. 



36 THE ROMAN WALL. — BORCOVICUS. 

example of the Roman camps that were in use for generations 
along the Wall. It has been well called the English Tadmor 
of the Desert. The country far around is even now a vast and 
striking solitude, but little changed, one may imagine, since 
the Roman age ; and dominant above it, grass-grown or clad 
with dark or pale-gray lichens, rise the walls that kept the 
imperial soldiers safe, — fragmentary, indeed, but clearly show- 
ing many rooms and the main outlines. The height is from 
three to six feet, and there are from five to seven courses of 
stones that are generally small, oblong, or square. Beside and 
under the great northern gate that boldly opened towards the 
Scots and Picts, they are much larger (two feet square or more) 
and nearly half as thick. They have close joints, and form 
one of the two best specimens of Roman masonry in northern 
Britain. The guard-chambers, pivot-holes to hold the double 
gates, and marks of long use of the thresholds are very evident. 
Still greater helps to history have been found throughout the 
station, consisting of uncommonly large numbers of inscrip- 
tions, statues, and small objects. Experience taught the writer 
that the ancient walls could still give welcome, and no slight 
protection from a squall of wind and rain that wildly swept 
across the open heights while he was on them, and realized the 
nature of the climate that the ancient garrison encountered. 
When the turmoil passed away, and bright sunshine spread 
over the wide landscape, all the region that the Tungrians 
guarded was displayed, — a vast, bare, wavy, grassy country 
now,- with a few patches only of dark woodland to suggest the 
distant forests of the early ages. 

A long reach of the Wall extends from Borcovicus westward 
to Rapishaw Gap. It follows the uneven cresting of the cliffs 
that rise with long and moderate slopes towards the south, but 
drop abruptly towards the north, presenting formidable barriers 
in that direction ; indeed, the most picturesque scenery found 
during the walk extends along and beyond this section. To 
the Gap the writer made the top of the dismantled wall his 
path. It is broken and uneven, but still the wall is several 
feet in height, about four feet in thickness, and retains both 
faces. 










I 



M I 



THE ROMAN WALL. — THE CEAGS. 37 

Two furlongs from Housesteads is a mile-castle, the north 
side of which is formed by the great Wall, and shows, says 
Mr. Bruce, " the finest specimen remaining on the whole line. 
It stands 14 courses or 9£ feet high, and is 10 feet thick. The 
castle itself measures, on the inside, 57 feet 7 inches from west 
to east and 49 feet 7 inches from north to south." After 
dipping deep into the Gap, the wall ascends and crosses a 
long ridge commanding an extensive view that in the fore- 
ground shows Broomlee, Greenlee, Crag, and Grindon, here 
called lakes, but really little oblong ponds, more picturesque, 
however, than some larger sheets of water. Beyond the ridge 
is Hot Bank, a neat farmhouse with a garden, in a hollow now 
called Milking Gap. The Wall thence, for a considerable dis- 
tance, is represented by a thin modern wall in which blocks 
from the ancient works are scattered. 

Towards the west is an imposing view. In quick succession 
rise three hills, with long slopes southward and precipitous 
dark sides towards the north. The farthest one is Winshields, 
where the Wall, that winds along the crest of all the three, 
attains its greatest elevation, — a thousand feet above the level 
of the sea. Beneath the lofty northern front of the first hill is 
nestled the small but really grand Crag Lough. Upon the 
cliffs abreast of it there seem to be no relics of the Wall ; and 
one might think that here the Romans had relied on the enor- 
mous natural barriers of the sheer and towering rocks of basalt, 
and the deep, dark water under them. But we are told they 
did not ; and no break was made in their great work. The 
views continue to be vast and lonely, over moorlands stretching 
far and wide, on grassy rural country southward, and on broad 
or high hills in the distance. 

West of Crag Lough is a steep slope into Steel Rig Gap, and 
here are low but still distinct remains of the old Wall. The 
steepness may have made it necessary to construct the work 
as strongly as was possible ; and if the Romans ever thought 
that it was proper to use greater care in one place than another 
they may here have done so, for cement is here unusually 
evident. A core of rubble bedded in it, according to their 
well-known style, is plainly seen, forming one of the few 



38 THE ROMAN WALL. 

examples that the writer found in good preservation. The 
next Gap, Castle Nick, is near, and in it are distinct remains 
of a castellum (uncovered in 1854), with a gate in both the 
northern and southern side, and an interior area measuring 
62 by 50 feet. Close to each of the other two sides there is a 
rocky knoll, from which the Wall has almost disappeared. On 
crags westward it is clearly shown, and there crosses a small, 
sharp, curious nick, beyond which a good bit of it ascends a 
long, high ridge ; but even there, in such a remote spot, some 
of it has recently been pulled down. Beneath the. Wall are 
very steep and broken crags, called " Cat's Stairs," perhaps 
from the ability to climb that they require. The view of the 
high cliffs gained from their base rewards a scramble down 
this way. A walk thence on the plain leads to the next Gap, 
one of the widest and most marked of all the passes. 

Peel Crag Gap, on account of its width and depth, was 
defended by the Romans with especial care, and they made 
use of good helps supplied by Nature. The slopes on either 
hand are long ; east they are grassy or rocky, and at an angle 
of nearly 45° ; west they are moderate. " On both sides of 
the pass," says Mr. Bruce, " the wall bends sharply to the 
south ; this has the double effect of narrowing the gorge and 
exposing an enemy to a flanking fire within half a bow-shot on 
both sides." The arrangement is still evident, although upon 
the eastern slope and through the Gap there are now only slight 
remains of the old wall, but not far up the western slope it 
becomes quite prominent. The crags and stones in this vicinity 
are almost black ; it is a Borderland in its formation, for sand- 
stone here meets the long line of basalt. Farther on there is 
a great extent of what seems to be the south face of the Wall 
reaching up the moderate but long eastern slope of Winshields. 
Over the long ridgy top of this great hill the interest is sup- 
plied by Nature and historical associations, rather than by 
remains of ancient military art. A wall extends without a 
break across it, but the work seems to be modern, although 
the old site and many old stones have been used. This wall, 
about five feet in height, is single, and perhaps three hundred 
feet of its length appear to have been of late relaid. 










i 

Si 

-'"'||M!| ' , 

: 
r 



< 









.tin; 



— d 'i*„' „ 




THE ROMAN WALL. 39 

The view from Winshields is extremely wide in all direc- 
tions. In clear weather vessels on the Solway can be seen, as 
well as Criffell in Kirkcudbrightshire, almost due west, and 
more than sixty miles distant. Most of the country seen is 
open, wavy, grass-land, bounded far south by long ridgy hills, 
far north by bluish hills, and south of west, and nearer, by 
great heights that are outlying portions of the mountain group 
in the Lake District. Prominent above them is Skiddaw. 
There are no towns in sight, and only scattered houses, none 
of which are very near. Eastward the view, reaching along 
the Wall and its vast base of hills, is even more interesting, 
and the resolute imperial stride of the great work is shown 
impressively in all its significance. 

A good stretch of the Wall extends west. Bogle-hole and 
Caw-gap, the next passes, also show remains ; but farther on 
the land is lower and more fertile, and the cultivation it has 
long received has brought destruction to the Roman work, as 
it has in like places elsewhere. If the explorer is to take the 
train at Haltwhistle, the line of the Wall is left before this tract 
is reached. The way lies down long moor-like slopes to the 
highroad, near which two dark and curious standing stones, 
now called " The Mare and Foal," are passed ; they were 
probably set up by the Druids, and formed part of one of the 
large circles formerly scattered through the country, but not 
now numerous. 

Great Chesters, a good farm-house in the open fields beyond 
the tract already mentioned, occupies the site of JEsica, the 
tenth permanent camp upon the Wall. About 1725 " some 
of the walls of the station were standing, twelve or thirteen feet 
high ; at present all that can be said is, that the ramparts and 
the fosse are clearly defined," writes Dr. Bruce. " The peculiar 
feature of this station," he adds, " is the water-course, which 
is to be found to the north of it, ... a channel three or four 
feet deep," extending very circuitously six miles on the hill- 
slopes to Caw-burn, where that, in a straight line, is only about 
two miles and a quarter distant. The Roman skill that was 
used to obtain good water is exemplified in even this remote 
spot. 



40 THE ROMAN WALL. 

iEsica, and portions of the Wall west of it, can be visited 
with ease in two excursions made from Gilsland Spa. The 
interesting section reaching from that station almost three 
miles west to Magna, the next one, can be examined during 
the first ; and in the other the succeeding section, Amboglanna, 
and some fine parts of the Wall west of it. 

Near Great Chesters the depression of the land comes to an 
end, and the crags again rise high. The Wall, that for some 
distance has been almost utterly destroyed, once more appears, 
and some parts of it show several courses of the northern 
facing. Below it are serrated and towering rocks, that bear the 
name of the " Nine Nicks of Thirl wall," : the highest of which, 
Mucklebank-crag, attains an elevation of 860 feet above the 
level of the sea. The features of the scenery resemble those 
seen eastward ; long slopes lie towards the south, steep crags 
face northward, and there are wide views over rural country 
to distant hills. Low trees, however, give the foregrounds more 
variety. 

The long, imposing line of cliffs comes to an end near Magna, 
two miles and three quarters from Great Chesters. Magna has 
experienced the fate of other stations built on fertile lowlands, 
and its remains have almost disappeared, notably within a hun- 
dred years. There are, however, relics of the Roman works, 
especially the Valium, extending through the two miles of rich 
farming country, reaching from the valley of the Tyne to 
another running westward and watered by the Irthing. Near 
the next station, Amboglanna, the Wall descended to and 
crossed the latter river. 

Amboglanna, at the farm now called Birdoswald, occupies a 
most commanding site upon an elevated bluff abdve the Irthing, 
that bounds it on almost three sides. The rampart of the camp 
and some remains of quite large buildings once within it still 
appear, but the chief features are a noble southern gate with 
two guard-chambers, and the lower one of two gates, towards 

1 Three views, made on the spot hy Mr. Collard, in 1837, are from Hodgson's 
History of Northumberland, iii. pt. 2. No. 1 "is from the south side of the 
murus, a little to the west of Walltown." No. 2 is a north view, looking west. 
No. 3 is also a north view, from the first gap west of Walltown, near Thirlwall. 






s& 



t-^rwfaj '<*%- ■'TZ/ttftW/t /rfsZjSJ. 



THE ROMAN WALL. 41 

the west. Inscriptions, altars, and a statue have been found 
here. Dr. Bruce informs us that " it is the largest station on 
the line, having an area of five acres and a half, which is about 
a quarter of an acre more than Cilurnum, and half an acre 
more than Borcovicus." He also states that the Wall west- 
ward " is in an unusually good state of preservation," and is 
indeed " the finest specimen of the great structure that re- 
mains." It averages a few feet in height, but is seven and a 
half feet thick, and, when the writer saw it, showed its facing 
of small square ashlar blocks resembling some modern pave- 
ment-stones in size and shape. Time has made them venerably 
gray, or veiled them with thick mosses, or has garlanded them 
with abundant wild-flowers. 

This region is associated with the romantic courtship of 
Sir Walter Scott, and with one of his most charming novels. 
These, and Naworth Castle, Lannercost, and Gilsland Spa — 
all very interesting — are described quite fully by the writer, 
in a chapter on " Rob Roy " in his " Lands of Scott." 

The relics of the Wall west of these places are now scanty, 
but the fosse is here and there distinctly marked. Painstaking 
antiquaries are perhaps the only persons who will care to fol- 
low it and note its details through the nearly level country that 
it traversed to the Solway, but they still will be rewarded for 
their research, and be also forced to think that the destructive 
Scots and Picts have, since 1700, had bold imitators. 

The Roman Wall entire, with its supporting Military-way 
and Vallum, required for its construction at least as much skill 
and labor as a modern railway through a wild and distant 
region. Both masonry and excavation were continuous, and 
the buildings numerous. The amount of transportation of 
materials, with the small facilities at command, made the 
labor relatively, if not actually, greater ; and the work of 
maintenance was of course much greater, for a far larger force 
and ceaseless watchfulness were needed, and great and varied, 
although different skill, was constantly required. The ancient 
builders seem in justice to deserve no lighter praise. 

Evidence of their marked ability and achievements may now 
disappoint a tourist ; storm, war, and sordid violence have 



42 ROMAN BRITAIN. 

visited them through fourteen centuries, and there is less to 
see than might be hoped ; but an observer will find much for 
wonder, pleasure, and instruction in these fragments of the 
outer barrier of a mighty empire, and of the strong, studied 
handiwork of an imperial people, who long ago departed fj'om 
the lands they ruled. 

The Romans, who established such strong guards along 
the coast and their permanent inland frontier, established also 
strong posts through the country. They had many towns and 
cities, not a few of which, and indeed most of the latter, have 
remained inhabited and growing to our times. Richard of 
Cirencester, who wrote in the latter portion of the fourteenth 
century, informs us that the Romans had one hundred and 
seventy-five stations, of which he gives the names, and " ninety- 
two cities, of which thirty-three were more celebrated and con- 
spicuous." Two were municipal, Verulamium (St. Albans), 
and Eboracum (York), where the inhabitants had nearly all 
the rights of Roman citizens. Nine were colonial, with rights 
not now well known, but with successors that bear long fami- 
liar names, Richborough, London, Bath, and Caerleon, at the 
south ; Colchester, Lincoln, and Cambridge, at the east ; and 
Chester and Gloucester at the west. The old monk's chronicle 
will tell the curious the names of all the others. In numbers 
of these places there were the usual Roman works, baths, 
amphitheatres, camps, temples, houses, but the relics of them 
are now scanty. In the country, here and there, were villas, 
numerous remains of which have been discovered. The per- 
sistency of Roman character is shown in their construction ; 
forms and fashions used in Italy are imitated in so far as means 
permitted or the relics indicate. As would be supposed, the 
superstructures have nearly disappeared, but the plans of the 
buildings can be traced. 

Tessellated pavements} that were marked features, are not 
now uncommon, but none of them have been found, says Mr. 

1 These are splendidly illustrated in two rare and expensive collected works, 
the plates of which, on account of their size and coloring, could not be reproduced 
in a book like the present. They are — 

Ltsons, S. Reliquiae Britannico-Romanae, 3 vols. ; 1 Roman Antiquities dis- 
1 See vol. ill. for Biguor. 



ROMAN PAVEMENTS. 43 

Rich, north of Isurium (Aldborough, less than twenty miles 
northwest of York), and Newburgh Park (still nearer York). 
One of the most extensive villas was at Bignor, ten miles 
northeast of Chichester, and near the southern coast, uncovered 
1811-17. Its outer walls measured 277 feet 4 inches on the 
east side, 385| on the west, 286 on the north, and 322| on the 
south, says Lysons. An inner court, about 150 by 100 feet, was 
surrounded by a gallery ten feet wide that had a fine mosaic 
pavement. The plan of these parts and of about sixty rooms, 
of which at least ten had similar floors, was determined. One 
of the latter, 20 feet by 19|, was entire ; another, 19 by 18, 
was of coarse light-brown tessarae ; a third, 19 by 18|, was of 
light-red terra cotta ; a fourth, 32 by 19 feet, was of very rich 
design, but much broken ; and a triclinium, or banqueting room, 
that had paintings on stuccoed walls, had a very rich pavement 
with elaborately ornamented bands forming panels that enclosed 
figures, and was a work worthy of Rome itself. Mosaic pave- 
ments have been found on sites of several Roman towns, es- 
pecially in Gloucestershire. The fragments of most of the other 
parts of buildings are so small or broken that conceptions of the 
perfect structures must be more or less imperfect. Foundations 
and some other portions of town-walls built by the Romans still 
remain incorporated with more recent works, at Chester, York, 
Chichester (?), Lincoln, and elsewhere, but the exigencies of a 
large and busy population and of changing times have naturally 
caused the destruction of nearly all the old defences. 

A few examples of the Roman town-walls, however, still 
maintain their individuality, unaltered save by time or vio- 
lence. At Verulamium (St. Albans) there are the foundations 
or the base of several hundred feet of its old wall. This reaches 
through the middle of low land along the foot of a considerable 

covered at Woodchester, Gloucestershire, 1 vol., and Gloucestershire Antiquities, 
2 vols., all atlas folio, 1797-1817. 

Fowler, Wm. Colored engravings of TJoman Pavements, Stained Glass, etc., 
in Great Britain, 2 or 3 vols., atlas folio, Winterton, 1798-1829. 

Mr. Fowler, originally a carpenter, executed the whole of this remarkable 
work, drawing, engraving, coloring, and paper making, and it is said that not 
over forty complete copies were made. 

The above 8 or 9 vols, are now priced at about £130, quite complete. See, 
also, List III. Roman Pavements, p. 432. 



44 ROMAN TOWN-WALLS. 

hill-slope to the south and west of the famous Abbey, but is 
very broken, and not much of it is over three feet high. The 
masonry is rubble and red bricks embedded in extremely strong 
cement used freely, and very wisely also, for it is the sole pro- 
tector of this shattered remnant of a once large city, of which 
it is now almost the only visible memorial. Above it shrubs and 
trees are growing, and around it spread green pastures ; in 
neglect and loneliness it crumbles — a mere shred of pagan 
Rome, it might be thought — while down upon it looks the vast 
renewed and strengthened fabric that holds much of its mate- 
rials and preserves through time the name of the heroic soldier 
who became a Christian, and here gained his glorious title, cut 
deep in the pavement near his shrine, " Anglorum Protomartyr." 
But while he is worthily remembered, even thus with no excess of 
honor, might not also human sympathy preserve this last pathetic 
relic of his kindred people who in time embraced his faith ? 

Colchester has the largest and the most complete example of 
a Roman town-wall to be found in any populous place in Great 
Britain, or perhaps north of the Alps. The portion spared is 
several hundred feet in length, embracing a southwestern 
rounded turn, and in some places there are relics of the an- 
cient glacis. Towards the east, the base alone remains, but 
farther on the wall is ten to twenty feet in height, although 
the former top is wanting and the present upper edge is broken. 
Coarse rubble, bricks, and the usual tenacious mortar, compose 
the masonry, the prevailing color of the exposed parts of which 
is now gray. The care bestowed upon these valuable relics 
does not seem to have impaired the means of Colchester or 
of the nation. 

Silchester l has the largest and the most impressive remains 
of a Roman town now to be found in Britain. They are in 
a quiet rural country, that to this time is less settled than is 
usual in England. Once the place was a centre where roads 
met, a sort of agricultural capital ; but now it is almost in soli- 
tude, and half-forgotten nearly midway between two routes of 
modern travel used by thousands every day, the Southwestern 

1 See " Archaeologia," Rev. J. G. Joyce, Excavations (read 1865), map and three 
plates, xl. 403-16, and his continuation, map and six plates, xlvi. 329-65. 



SILCHESTER. 45 

and Great Western railways, and their stations at Basingstoke 
and Reading. One of the delightful, simple roads that traverse 
undisturbed old English country leads to it from Mortimer, a 
station on a cross-line three miles distant from it. Nowhere 
out of England are there roads like this, narrow, well-kept, 
shaded sometimes by large trees, or closely bordered by rough 
hedges, winding up and down hill through fields of grain or 
grass, and past low, quaint farm-houses built of red bricks, 
and, here and there, a homestead of a higher class. This road 
at length leads to a little church, "with sides of wood or rough- 
cast, standing near a snug farm-house, beside which is a large 
barn-yard. The place suggests as little as any could of ancient 
Rome, or of the need of great defensive works, but when the 
barn-yard is crossed and a turn is made into a shallow wooded 
hollow beyond it, the scene is changed. There is nothing else 
in England like the walk of more than half a mile that can 
there be taken. On the right is a belt of trees and shrubbery 
that hides a road extending along some portion of the distance. 
The ground, overgrown with thick grass and in some places 
swampy, slopes slightly upward from the belt and shows that it 
was once the ditch before a very large defensive work ; for all 
along the left still stretches the impressive, gray and broken, but 
unmistakable stone wall of the Roman Calleva, the successor 
of the Caer Seiout of the Britons. Some parts of the walls 
are low, and others rise twenty feet above the ground, crested 
with oaks and shrubbery that replace the battlements. The 
facing has been torn away, and the exposed core is furrowed 
or covered with moss, and shows the small flint, or flat bonding 
stones of which it is made, embedded according to the Roman 
manner in a great deal of firm mortar. One of the least in- 
jured parts is an original gateway that retains courses of its 
facing-stones. Along this rude, wide, silent avenue one walks 
where ancient Britons kept their guard, and where the Romans 
watched for a longer time than has elapsed since Elizabeth was 
queen. These mouldering remains of walls were once so strong 
that they were held by troops who could confer the imperial 
purple on a favored leader ; for the usurper Constantine was 
proclaimed here in 407, and here, almost a century later, the 



46 SILCHESTER. 

ferocious Saxons, who are now almost as shadowy as the heroes 
of the old Walhalla, crossed with fire and sword to devastate a 
city. While these ramparts, that were dismantled only when 
they had grown old, have been resisting decay, almost every- 
thing that makes Old England has passed through its slow 
growth. The most remarkable vestiges of one of her earliest 
seats of civilization are here neglected and decaying. Cannot 
less than one hour of her great revenue be spared from petty 
distant wars to buy Silchester and Richborough for the nation ? 
They stand, not quite crushed, with gray heads uncovered, 
asking for preservation. The walls, on other sides far more 
imperfect or represented by mounds, enclose an area nearly 
a mile and a half in circuit and an irregular octagon in shape. 
The site is the level top of a broad swell of land, from which 
in some directions there are wide views of fields and wooded 
tracts, and ranges of low hills blue in the distance. A modern 
road divides the area, and about midway along it are distinct 
remains of a square camp, now surrounded by a high and but 
little broken mound, composed of earth, dark, dull-red Roman 
bricks, and bits of flint-stones. Excavations have revealed 
remains of streets, or buildings constructed of large and small 
stones, — some of the latter squared and two feet on a side, now 
covered with gray lichens, — but the materials are chiefly bricks 
and flints. The central part of the area is a square platform, 
around which is a grainfield. Between the camp and the town- 
wall that has been described, there are remains of thermce and 
cold baths, that occupied a building eighty feet in length. The 
ruins of two heating-places built of bricks, and tessellated pave- 
ments of red bricks, and white stones about an inch square, 
are shown. They were uncovered in 1833, and some parts 
were sheltered by rude sheds, that are now quite unworthy 
of a hen-coop. Mother earth took better care of them. 

Aldborough x shows some curious and interesting relics of 
Isurium, already mentioned, that seems to have been the north- 

1 See Wright, Thos., "Wanderings of an Antiquary; chiefly upon the 
Traces of the Romans in Britain." 12°, London, 1854. See also several other 
works hy the same author, relating to this period, and Smith, H. E., " Reliquiae 
Isurianas," 34 plates. Roy. 4°, 1852. 



ALDBOROUGH. 47 

ern limit of the Roman arts of peace or luxury. A pleasant 
visit can be made to it from Boroughbridge, where there is now 
a railway-station, reached with ease from York. Borough- 
bridge is a crooked little town with small, quaint houses, some 
of them inns, in one of which the writer found a neat, snug 
coffee-room, and a breakfast, both particularly English. Half 
a mile beyond, reached by a pleasant shaded country road, 
is Aldborough. It is a little village, or a hamlet, of small 
houses, most of which are built of red bricks. Here also there 
at first is slight suggestion of the mistress of the world ; but 
in, or back of, some of these plain little houses, will be 
found scanty but yet even startling proofs of her long control 
of this part of old England, now so quiet and so simple. Here, 
upon a moderate swell of land that rises from the generally 
level tract extending through the central and southeastern 
parts of Yorkshire, stood a city that once rivalled York in 
wealth and size. The circuit of its walls, still traceable, was 
nearly a mile and a half, and it had a strong walled camp. 
Some think that it is now — mere fragment of its former self 
although it is — " one of the most important and instructive " 
Roman stations in the country. Its most curious relics are 
mosaic pavements, found several years ago, and shown in build- 
ings near the centre of the place. The first one of them is 
in a low two-storied dwelling, called " The Old Manor House," 
and is about a dozen feet square. It serves as the floor of 
a back room on the first story, and is in fair order. The de- 
sign consists of geometrical and figured patterns, but contains 
no animal or human forms. Beyond here the road, turning to 
the right, ascends a moderate slope, and passes by the little inn, 
a primitive and simple one. Behind it, in a garden, are two 
cabins built of stone, in each of which there is a pavement, — 
neither very large, but both superior to the others here, and 
to many found elsewhere in England. One has for its centre- 
piece a panther underneath a tree. The care bestowed upon 
these works of art by an extremely aged woman who exhibited 
them was quite touching, and some more prominent proprietors 
or guardians might imitate her. She kept both of her treasures 
covered well with sawdust, to preserve the color and the polish, 



48 ROMAN ANTIQUITIES. 

and to absorb the dampness ; and she had done so with success, 
although the cabins are not properly constructed to exclude 
the moisture in the ground, beneath the surface of which the 
mosaics have been buried eighteen inches or two feet. Another 
of these lodgings for the relics covers the remains of a Basilica, 
so called, where there is a larger pavement, that is oblong, and 
that once had a semicircular end ; but not one half of the 
work remains, and the fragments are damp, discolored, in- 
jured, and decaying. Portions of the sandstone basement of 
a temple are around it. Near the summit of the hill is a rude 
tower, beside which is a little narrow, shabby building called 
the museum, containing some objects, most of which are small, 
found in the neighborhood, pathetic scraps from the once popu- 
lous Isurium. 

The grand collection of such relics in the northern counties 
is at York, surrounded by the charming grounds adjacent to 
St. Mary's Abbey. Here are statues, decorations, coffins, glass, 
fine Samian war and military and domestic articles, that make 
up a remarkable and an instructive record of the Roman 
period in Britain. There are objects found in many places ; 
a large number came from the ground now covered by the new 
vast railway-station, when that was erected. 

Another large collection is stored in the Norman keep at 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Important objects — altars, sculptures, 
and inscriptions that are black with dust or smoke — are 
placed in curious but dark. apartments, where details are made 
almost invisible. 

Chichester, near the Channel coast, presents a, notable ex- 
ample of the Roman town-walls at about their farthest south- 
ern limit in Great Britain. The ground-plan of the place 
remains substantially the same as in the Roman times, — a 
square divided in four parts by two main streets that cross 
from side to side. A section of the wall extends from Friary 
Lane to the cast gate (that is no longer standing) ; but the 
best kept portion is at the north, now blackened-gray in color, 
about a dozen feet thick, and twenty feet high on the outside, 
where the facings are small, broken, well-laid flintstones. On 
. the top is a broad gravelled walk, protected on the outer side 



ROMAN BRITAIN. 49 

by a thin, poor, modern parapet, and shaded by large trees 
that grow close to the inner side. A great deal of the wall 
has been destroyed. 

While the relics of Roman works in England are far infe- 
rior in number and importance to those in France, and have 
received less care, and, indeed, have been discreditably neg- 
lected, they are yet numerous and precious. They include 
neither temples, aqueducts, or theatres on the imperial scale ; 
but the military works, the chief of which have been described 
above, rank high among all the remains of their class. The 
country was a distant province, and especially provincial one 
must remember ; yet it contained examples, though not great, 
of all the distinctive structures of the Romans. That so large 
a part of them have perished is not strange ; for the vicissi- 
tudes throughout the Saxon period were terrible, and in the 
Middle Ages there was strong temptation to re-use the ma- 
terials. The heedlessness in the last hundred years does 
not admit of so comparatively satisfactory explanation. If the 
general study of Roman antiquities can be pursued with less 
advantage in England than in other regions outside of Italy 
that were held by the empire, the condition of the country as 
a Roman province can be fairly estimated. Military strength 
used constantly was, and must be, the chief characteristic. 
Numerous towns, with the means, conveniences, and some of 
the luxuries then usual, existed ; and a fair amount of trade 
and agriculture supported the population. That there was 
settled life, with wealth and the tastes of Italy, is evident from 
the number of rich villas scattered through the country, the 
original examples of some of its conspicuous existing features. 
Along with forms of tyranny that must have always marked 
the imperial rule, there must have been advantages that bal- 
anced them. The Roman civilization, if it did not animate 
the life of all the people, affected them ; and if in time it 
passed utterly away, and is not now apparent in the nation and 
the England that we see, and consequently has a minor place 
in her history, it forms an attractive introductory chapter; and 
the visits to its crumbling monuments are among the most 
interesting that can be made on the ancient island. 

4 



50 ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND. 



ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND.* 

The last of all the Roman legions left the shores of Britain 
when the forces of the empire were concentrated for the defence 
of its endangered centre. They left on the island a numerous 
mixed people, who had gained some advantages from civiliza- 
tion, and some practice in municipal affairs and freedom, but 
who were exposed to dangerous attacks from wild and warlike 
neighbors, and were too accustomed to rely upon the help of 
others. Representatives of foreign races had become estab- 
lished in the country, and local chiefs were growing stronger. 
Interests, ambitions, or antipathies, that would be quiet under 
one indisputable rule, were roused into activity. Some relics 
of the Roman government remained in civitates that were inde- 
pendent, and had a legislature, and a bishop who at times 
directed temporal as well as spiritual matters. But no long 
time for internal changes passed. External dangers soon pre- 
vailed above all others, and supplanted local issues. 

A new and entirely different era was to begin in Britain, 
amid storms of war more lurid and destructive than any with 
which the wildest moods of Nature could assail her often 



1 See publications of the Commissioners on Public Records since 1783, now 
in more than 100 vols., and the English Historical Society's collections. Also 
Camden's "Britannia"; the "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" (1-1154), published under 
the Master of the Rolls, B. Thorpe editor, 2 vols., 1861 ; Richard of Cirencester, 
" Speculum Historiale de Gestis Regum Angliae" (447-1066), do., Mayor editor, 
2 vols., 1863-69 ; and several editions of Bede, " Eccles. Hist, of the English 
Nation " (to 731) ; William of Malmesbury's " Chronicle of the Kings of England " 
(449-1142) ; Ethelward's Chronicle (to 975) ; the works of Gildas ; Geoffrey of 
Monmouth's "British History" (to 688) ; Asser of St. David's "Annals of the 
Reign of Alfred the Great" (849-887); Pearson's, Weddel's, and Von Spriiner's 
Historical Maps. Giles, J. A., " History of the Ancient Britons," 2 vols., 8°, 
London, 1847 ; Kemble, J. M., " The Saxons in England, till the Norman Con- 
quest," 2 vols., 8°, London, 1849; Geeen, J. R., "The Making of England," 8°, 
London, 1882 ; Thrupp, John, " The Anglo-Saxon Home, a History of the 
Domestic Institutions and Customs of England " (5th-llth century), 8°, London, 
1862; Turner, Sharon, "The History of the Anglo-Saxons" (to 1066), 3 vols., 
8°, 1852, etc. ; Wright, T., " Essays on Literature, etc., of England in the Middle 
Ages," 2 vols., 8°, London, 1846. 



ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND. 51 

storm-swept territory. Foes were pressing her on every side, 
the least of whom may have appeared to be men from the long 
peninsula of northern Germany. Some of their race already 
lived upon the eastern coasts, that had been called the litus 
/Saxonicum, and thus had established a sort of kinship with the 
natives. For defence, a band of Jutes was employed, and in 
449 they with their leaders, Hengist and Horsa, "landed at 
Ebbsfleet in the Isle of Thanet." They were the precursors of 
countless bands from the same country, that were in time and 
by terrible invasions to seize and possess the land, — Jutes, 
Danes, Saxons, Angles, who were to make the green island 
Angle-land, the England of the modern world. They appeared 
first like the little cloud not heeded by the unobservant, but 
that flies like a dark omen before a coming tempest. "No 
spot in Britain," continues Dr. Green, " can be so sacred to 
Englishmen as that which first felt the tread of English feet." 
It was the low ground north of the place where Caesar disem- 
barked, and in sight of Richborough. 

The Jutes in 449, dangerous allies, helped to expel the Scots 
and Picts, then the most dreaded foes of cultivated Britain, but 
at the same time learned the tempting wealth and weakness of 
the people who engaged them, and made their own plans for 
profiting by opportunity that was too evident. Large bodies of 
the Saxons reinforced them, and pressed forward a remorseless 
war of conquest, that became in time not only one of subjuga- 
tion, but extermination. In 454 Hengist established, from north 
Essex to the Channel and to Middlesex, the kingdom of Kent. 
And then a long succession of bold leaders with fresh forces, 
emulated his example, carrying direful warfare into every part 
of Britain, and making slaves of the remnants of the people 
spared from death or not driven to the mountain regions of 
Wales. The kingdom of Sussex, that is, of the south Saxons, 
was established in 490 on the southern coast, and in 519, 
Wessex, the kingdom of the west Saxons, was formed in the 
southwestern portion of the island. In 530 the east Saxons 
founded Essex, thus diminishing the area of Kent. Dates of 
these events are differently stated by authors, but the time and 
the course of the conquests is closely shown. 



52 ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND. 

The Saxons, who had been such active invaders, were mean- 
while joined by Angles from South Jutland, who in turn 
secured land for themselves, and, about 575, founded the king- 
dom of East-Anglia, the modern Norfolk. The name of their 
territory, Angle-land, then East Engla-land, spread from the 
small region where it had its origin until, finally, it was applied 
to all the country, that thus became England. They had 
previously founded Deira, now Yorkshire and Lancashire, and 
Benecia, that comprised the present Northumberland, Durham, 
and the eastern coast of Scotland to the Forth. Not long after- 
wards the two latter kingdoms were united and formed North- 
umbria. Their last state, Mercia, was founded about 586, and 
embraced the area of several of the present midland counties 
from the German Sea to Wales. 

These various invasions and conquests were prolonged 
through many years, and seemed desultory, not only because 
they were made by numerous bands or tribes not vast in num- 
bers, but also on account of the nature of the country as it 
then existed. Certain great features that were marked in the 
Roman period continued prominent and seemed to have great 
effect long after it. Fens and forests of remarkable extent 
formed barriers that withstood or turned the invaders. The 
Andredsweald spread its dense woods almost from Folkestone 
to Southampton, and restricted the efforts of the Jutes in Kent, 
and of the South Saxons west of them. Nearly all Essex was 
a forest, and barred the incoming East Saxons. Even the 
Romans had been forced to a circuitous route to pass it on the 
way between London and Lincoln. From the Peak, in central 
England, " the wolf," says Dr. Green, " roamed over the long 
* desert ' that stretched to the Cheviots " in Scotland ; " in- 
deed," he adds, " the wild bull wandered through forest after 
forest from Ettrick to Hampstead," — that is, through the mid- 
lands from southern Scotland to the suburbs of London. A 
vast fen extended from Cambridge to the mouth of the Humber, 
and another along the Thames, on the east side of the island, 
while on the west a lesser but formidable tract that adjoined 
the Severn penetrated far into the country. These and other 
features, as they had effect upon the movements of the German 



ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND. 53 

invaders, are described far more minutely by Dr. Green in his 
" Making of England " than is possible upon these pages. It 
is " no slight misfortune," he says in his preface, " that the 
period of their conquest should remain comparatively unknown, 
and that its struggles, which were in reality the birth-throes of 
[the English] national life, should be still to most Englishmen, 
as they were to Milton, mere battles of kites and crows." 
Americans will find in the events of this obscure and distant 
period the subject of both thought and thankfulness, when they 
observe its horrors while men of the German race became 
established in the old home-land of the English tongue, and 
contrast it with the times while a far greater number of the 
same race, not from a small part, but from all parts of old 
Germany, and an immeasurably more developed people, are 
becoming peacefully domesticated in the new world as fellow- 
citizens, already influential, and to grow more important. 

The gradual, continuous, and devastating conquests by the 
invading races, while they resulted in the ruin of the ancient 
people, met with desperate resistance. Through much of the 
first half of the sixth century King Arthur in the West became 
the hero of the war for freedom and existence. But all 
struggles with the pagan inundation were in vain. The civil- 
ization of the past, like those who knew it, disappeared beneath 
the floods of barbarism, and even Christianity, that had become 
established, seemed to have been swept away amid the universal 
ruin. A period like an Arctic winter, hopelessly, indefinitely 
lengthened, settled gloomily on social life in Britain, blighting 
all of it except some germs that long lay dormant ; and the 
human figures flitting through its darkness, although they bear 
names, are yet so indistinct that we might doubt that they had 
once existed, if the returning light did not show work that they 
must then have done. Among them there must have been a 
hero in the long defence ; we call the storied one King Arthur, 
and remember him together with his brave companions as the 
poets have transfigured them. 

The history of the first three or four centuries of Saxon 
England is so confused, little known, or vague, that even Milton 
wrote of the affairs of the Heptarchy as has just been men- 



54 ALFRED THE GREAT. 

tioned, and Hume, who so fully describes the events of 
later times, gives brief attention to it. We know, however, 
the great fact that a new people, who differed much from the 
early Britons, a few remnants of whom they kept, was estab- 
lished after tremendous agitation, and that the small conflicting 
kingdoms founded by them were at length united in 827, and 
ruled by Egbert, the first king of all England. Through three 
quarters of a century that ensued, the Saxons and Angles felt 
the retribution so often shown in history. Other north Germans, 
then called Danes, tried in their turn to dispossess them, and 
the descendants of invaders felt the scourge laid mercilessly 
by their fathers on the Britons. The dismal chronicle of wreck 
and carnage was repeated, and the hero in the new defence 
arose, far more distinct and noble to our view than Arthur. 
Scathed but triumphant, Alfred the Great emerges from the 
gloom around the ashes of the fires he quenched, a living 
power even now, although he has become hardly human in the 
halo with which poetry and romance have invested him. His 
victory of Ethandune (now Eddington, in Berks?), gained in 
878, seems to have been one of those decisive actions that affect 
the future even more than the period in which they occur. 
His important victory at Ashdown, seven years earlier, is, at 
least by popular tradition, still commemorated in a curious 
monument that, though of questioned origin, is one of the 
attractive objects in the southern counties. It is the figure of 
a running horse, 374 feet long, cut through the turf so as to 
show the underlying chalk close to the top of a high hill in 
Berkshire. Mr. Hughes has agreeably described its signifi- 
cance and preservation in his " Scouring of the White Horse," 
as a performance that he saw is called. 

Alfred, the sixth king of all England, was the Charlemagne 
in the remarkable succession of sovereigns who have ruled 
through almost eleven hundred years. The day of the glories 
of their country, since grown so brilliant, was only dawning 
in his time, and gave slight evidence of its full noontide 
splendor that we see. The rising sun of England, when he 
saw it, reddened in the smoke of battle, cast its rays athwart 
the tree-tops of the forest ; and but slightly warmed to grow- 



THE SAXON AETS. 55 

ing life the land beneath. His fortitude and wisdom opened 
way to clearer light for peaceful labors there ; and more than 
thirty generations have been constantly improving by them. 
Well may the English race look back to him with a loving 
veneration. 

The reigns of the sixteen kings who followed Alfred, ex- 
tending through one hundred and sixty-five years, and filled 
by the vicissitudes of the slow development of the country, 
can be but briefly mentioned ; for the future is crowded with 
interest. At the end of these years a new and peculiarly 
important period began. 

The search for visible memorials of six hundred years of 
British history, from the departure of the Romans to the com- 
ing of the Normans, will lead now to few unquestioned objects ; 
and those generally will prove small, or mixed with works of 
other times, or interesting to few others than the careful archae- 
ologist. The arts and means, or lack of them, among the 
Saxons and Angles could leave little that is monumental. 
Even their most skilful work, the illuminations on their man- 
uscripts, must often be received with care as evidence of what 
they were or what they made. Their manners were so rude 
that they required only the simplest structures for domestic use. 
They chiefly built of wood, or mud and thatch. Their houses 
frequently had but one room, and seldom more than two rooms ; 
and even churches sometimes were almost as fragile. Military 
architecture also seems to have been simple. Possibly no castle 
that they built remains ; for Bamborough and Coningsburgh, 
the two once thought to have been made by them, are now 
thought to be Norman. In the latter portion of this period 
they sometimes built with stone, especially when they erected 
churches ; and in parts of these still spared, found chiefly in 
retired places, must be sought the small and scattered evi- 
dence of their imperfect art. Even this shows few objects 
such as might be looked for as memorials of a population that 
held England through so many centuries. The tower of EarVs 
Barton church, Northamptonshire, is usually mentioned as the 
chief example of what may be called the Saxon style. . Its 
features are remarkable. The quoins, of cut stone, are alter- 



56 ENGLE AND SAXON ENGLAND. 

nately laid flat and on one end ; and flat strips of stone 
projecting slightly from the surface of the wall run perpen- 
dicularly nearly to its top, relieved by angular offsets ; besides 
which, herring-bone work varies the masonry. The belfry has 
on each side half a dozen short, stout, baluster-like pillars that 
might almost have suggested some upon Jacobean cabinets, 
and the door is low and round-arched. These features do not 
seem to have been thoroughly developed, and deserve attention 
in designs for moderately ornamented brick-work. 

The periods when the Saxons and Angles were predominant 
in England, and the Danes secured great power there, were not 
times when the arts could flourish, or that, as has been ob- 
served, produced enduring material monuments. Like far 
greater periods that have transformed the structure of the 
world, they were those of preparation, showing, when ended, 
that, from the flood and fire and agitation, a superior place for 
man had been formed. No cathedral, wall, or castle, of im- 
portance, now dates from them. We grope through their 
dimness ; but we find that then an English people had been 
gathered and established in its home, and that the deep founda- 
tions of their character and power had then been laid. What 
greater monument could rise from all the struggles of these 
six centuries ? 



THE NORMAN PERIOD. 57 



THE NORMAN PERIOD. 



The Normans, though originally a part of the powerful 
northern race of which tribes had established permanent 
homes throughout England, had a long training before they 
came there irresistibly in force, as they did in 1066. From 
the beginning of the ninth century they had, in independent 
bodies, invaded the shores of the continent, from northern 
France to Sicily, and in various places had secured lands and 
become settled people. In Northwestern France a very power- 
ful body had obtained possession of extensive territory, and 
were established for several generations. They increased in 

1 Early historians of the Norman Period whose works are published under the 
direction of the Master of the Rolls, and the editors, are : — 

Bartholomew de Cotton, Monk of Norwich, Historia Anglicana, 449-1298. 
H. R. Luard, 1859. 

Giraldus Cambrensis, 7 vols. Brewer and Dimock, 18G1-1877. 

Eadtner of Canterbury, Hist. Novorum in Anglia. 18S4. 

Henry of Huntington, Hist, of the English, a. c. 55 to a. d. 1154. 1S79. 

Roger of Hoveden, to 1201. W. Stubbs, 4 vols., 1868-1871. 

William of Malmesbury, De Gestis Pontifieum Anglorum, lib. v., to time of 
his writing, 1123. From ancient MS., by Hamilton, 1870. 

Several historians of monasteries also aid : — 

Chronicle of Evesham, 690-1418. W. D. Macray, 1863. 

Hist. Mon. St. Petri Gloucestria?, 681-1377, 3 vols. 1863-1867. 

Annales Monastici (several), 1-1432, 5 vols. 

Symeon of Durham, Hist. Ecc. Dunhelmensis. Arnold, 1882. 

See also Benedictus Petroburgensis (Henry II. and Richard I.), Hearne'sed., 
1735; William of Newborough, to 1198, Eng. Hist. Soc, 2 vols., 1856; Gesta 
Stephani Regis Anglorum, etc., Sewell do., 1846 ; Florence of Worcester, Chroni- 
con ex Chronicis to 1118, and continuation to 1141, do. and Bonn's ed. ; Domesday 
Book, published by the Com. Public Records, 2 vols., 1783-1816, and under direc- 
tion of Sir H. James, Ord. Survey, in photozincography, 2 vols., large 4°, 1861- 
1863, for £18. Also Hume's Hist. Eng., and Creasy's Battles (used as authorities 
here, on p. 58, etc.). 

Modern special works : — 

Thierry, F. Histoire de la Conquete de l'Angleterre par lesNormands [1066- 
1485], 2d ed., 4 vols., 8°, Paris, 1826 (in English, sundry editions) ; Freeman, E. 
A., History of the Norman Conquest of England, its Causes and Results, 4 vols., 
8°, Oxford, 1867-1871 ; Palgrave, F., History of Normandy and England, 4 vols., 
8°, London, 1851-1864 (see vols. iii. and iv.) ; Houard, M., Traite's sur les 
Coutumes Anglo-Normandes, qui ont ete publie'es en Angleterre (llth-14th 
centuries), 4 vols., 4°, Paris, 1776. 



58 THE NOEMAN CONQUEST. 

numbers, strength, and skill, in arts of peace as well as war •, 
but meanwhile they retained their character and force, — both 
terrible when exercised. Their leaders were most formidable 
dukes ; and their possessions were the Duchy of Normandy, 
named from them. It contained good lands, a noble river, 
and long coasts ; and lay beside a region settled in part at 
least by fugitives from war-scourged Britain, and for this 
reason called Brittany. In 1060, Duke William ruled not 
only both of these important parts of France, but as far as 
Touraine east of them, and was the most powerful noble in that 
country. His birthplace, the imposing castle at Falaise, has 
been described by the writer in the chapter on Normandy in 
" The Historical Monuments of France " (p. 218), where some- 
thing of his earlier life has been told. At Caen are still more 
imposing memorials of his marriage and later years, described 
in the same book (pp. 213-217). The greatest deeds and their 
results, that render his career and name important, were in 
England, and are still strikingly illustrated there by some of 
the noblest works of Norman art. William is said to have 
claimed the English crown by provision of the will of Edward 
the Confessor, who died Jan. 5, 1066 ; but very different opin- 
ions have been held on the fact or validity of this title. Har- 
old, Duke of East Anglia and Governor of Essex, the second 
son of Earl Godwin, who ruled Wessex, Kent, and Sussex, 
was an ambitious nobleman, and had so prepared the way that 
on the death of Edward he at once obtained the throne. The 
wrath of the Duke of Normandy was terrible, and he resolved 
to assert his claim by an invasion of England. His great re- 
sources in both men and materials, and — not less than these 
— his own abilities and wide renown enabled him to obtain an 
unusually powerful fleet and army (3,000 vessels and 60,000 
men), with which without loss he reached Pevensey in Sussex, 
on the shore of the Channel, where he landed on the 29th of 
September. Harold had just obtained a signal victory over 
Norwegian invaders near York, and hastened to meet the 
Normans. His army was inferior, but on the 14th of October he 
joined battle with them at Hastings, and at night lay dead upon 
the field lost utterly by the English. It was the most impor- 



NORMAN MILITARY ART. 59 

tant battle ever fought upon the ancient island ; it closed the 
invasions that had scourged it for a thousand years ; it changed 
the future of the country, and began another period of Eng- 
lish history that has continued for eight centuries. The 
elements that make the English people had then all reached 
the English ground, and were from that time to mingle and to 
grow until they spread their influence throughout the world. 

This blended population — once Danes, Engles, or Saxons 
— was at the Conquest but moderately civilized, but little 
educated in letters and the arts, and rude in manners. Their 
condition might be likened to that of the soil on which they 
lived, that then was slightly cultivated, but that was capable of 
bearing precious and abundant crops, and of investing the land 
with a rich and peaceful beauty. They were insular, and had 
been separated from the arts and learning of the continent, 
that, imperfect as these were, had yet grown far more than in 
England. These the Normans brought, — some compensation 
for their stern rule and fierce nature. The Anglo-Saxon laws 
and institutions, while containing elements of much that has 
proved valuable to the English people, were susceptible of 
course of much improvement ; and the Normans, while com- 
mitting grievous wrongs, helped in the process. Keeping 
at first distinct from the race that they made their subjects, 
they in time blended with them ; and the union of the two 
created a new strength in the one race that they eventually 
formed. 

The Normans, like the Romans, from the nature of their 
occupation of the country, needed strong defensive works to 
hold it. First, they required large castles at the ports through 
which they must maintain communications with Normandy. 
They found three places on the southern coast available. At 
Pevensey (where William landed), at Portchester, and at Dover, 
vessels could be' sheltered, and large Roman works could 
be adapted to their purpose. Then the eastern coast, where 
foes for centuries had made incursions, must be guarded. 
Colchester, Bamborough, and other marked strong sites were 
fortified. The whole interior of the country, and especially the 
cities, must be watched and overawed. Rochester, London, 



60 THE NORMAN PERIOD. 

Windsor, Norwich, Kenilworth, Richmond, and other places, 
still show how the Normans realized this important fact, and 
the huge strongholds they constructed. 

They introduced in England, or they very much developed 
there, a formidable and imposing style of military architecture, 
in which the great feature was the keep. They built as had no 
other people in the country since the Romans ; they indeed 
surpassed them by the grandeur of these mighty towers. They 
rivalled their own works in Normandy, and showed their stern 
determination to maintain a lasting conquest. The enduring 
monuments of their strong will, marked character, and skill, 
are also among the most important evidences of the civil his- 
tory of Europe in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Though 
often worn or broken, yet still huge and strong, these works 
rise through the land from Pevensey to Bamborough ; and as 
time goes by, the contrast of their origin and former use with 
their existing state will only serve to increase their interest. 

Pevensey Castle, at the ancient Anderida Portus, is a 
marked example of the manner in which the invading Nor- 
mans made the Roman works subservient to their purposes, 
when they in turn were foreign conquerors of England. The 
remarkably extensive ruins of the castle stand upon a low, 
broad, rocky, but now grass-grown knoll, that for a long time 
was close to the sea, above the level of which it has risen, says 
tradition. The coast-line has receded here, however, as else- 
where on the shores of Sussex, and has left an intervening plain 
almost a mile in breadth, containing some of the best pasturage 
in England. A grass-grown and nearly level, rounded area of 
more than nine acres is enclosed by the exterior walls of this 
great fortress. The walls, now from twenty to twenty-five feet 
high, rest on piles and were defended by about a dozen bas- 
tions with rounded fronts, — some of them solid, and several 
of them still almost entire in bulk. The top and faces of the 
wall are now much broken, and covered with a dense growth 
of ivy. While the ground-plan is not of the form common 
with the Romans, the style of the construction shows their 
handiwork, or an uncommon imitation of it. Flint-stones 
bedded in strong mortar, and banded by red Roman bricks, are 



PEVENSEY CASTLE. 61 

used as they are at Richborough. In marked contrast are the 
walls known to have been built by the Normans for their keep 
and stronghold that they placed on and around slightly rising 
ground at the southwestern bend of the exterior works. These 
walls, towards the area (that their builders made an outer 
ballium), have a facing of smoothed squared stones and less 
cohesive, cores. A large part of this evidently Norman portion 
of the castle is very ruinous, more so than even the outer wall. 
The fact that coins that date through the reigns of six or seven 
Roman emperors have been found here is significant. 

The modes of the offensive and defensive warfare of the 
builders are less shown here than at Portchester, a similar 
castle that will be described on the next page, but Pcvensey 
has numerous and interesting historical associations, as well 
as picturesque features, and good views are obtained from its 
walls. Northward lies a wide extent of flat, green meadows, 
bounded by low swells of pleasant-looking land, a walk to 
which across the level seems to be easy and attractive, for 
one of the most picturesque and romantic ruins of a late 
medieval residence in southern England stands in a green 
vale in that direction. But the writer tried the route and 
found a labyrinth of ditches, and he advises, or hopes, that 
no misguided traveller will follow his example. Southward 
there is an even wider view over the broad Pcvensey Level, 
and a long reach of the Channel and its low shores. 

The conqueror, who landed near here and gained his great 
victory at Hastings eight miles eastward, " gave this town and 
castle," says Grose, " to Robert, earl of Morton, in Normandy, 
his brother by his mother's side, and created him earl of Corn- 
wall." Robert rebelled, and held the castle against William 
II., but afterwards made peace with the king. His next suc- 
cessor also rebelled against the next king, Henry I., but lost 
the town and castle, that were given to Gilbert de Aquila, and, 
from the new holder's name, were called " the honor of the 
eagle." Rebellion seems to have been a normal impulse of 
the lords of Pevensey, and their disloyal acts were sundry 
times repeated. The third Gilbert de Aquila forfeited the 
eagle honor, and it was conferred on other lords, until Henry 



62 THE NORMAN PERIOD. 

III., about 1229, gave it to Prince Edward and his heirs. It, 
however, in time reverted to the crown, and Henry IV. con- 
ferred it on the brave and loyal Pelhams. In the reign of 
this king, Queen Joan (his last wife) and the Duke of York 
were confined here, as also, for eighteen years, was James I. 
of Scotland. Besides this distinction as a prison, Pevenscy 
gained another in warfare, for it withstood a siege of six weeks 
in the reign of William L, and a long one in the reign of 
Stephen, in both of which cases famine made the garrison 
surrender. 

Portchester Castle stands nearly midway between Ports- 
mouth and Southampton, on low land beside an inlet of the 
sea. A road about a mile long leads directly from the station 
to the village, through it, and beneath some large shade trees 
up to the portal. This is placed between two rounded towers 
at the northwestern angle of the huge square structure, that, 
as already said, resembles Pevensey in plan, except in general 
shape and its far better preservation. A wall six feet thick 
and fifteen, or more, feet high, according to different accounts, 
measures four hundred and forty feet on each internal side, or 
six hundred and ten feet on the exterior, and encloses a flat, 
grassy area of upwards of eight acres. At three of the corners 
is a rounded tower or bastion, and on each of two of the sides 
are three more, all of them open towards the area. In form, 
style, and construction they are Roman, built of flint-stones, 
laid with care in courses, and in very strong cement that was 
made hot when used. There are narrow bonding courses, most 
of them of thin slate-stones, but here and there of bright red 
Eoman bricks. The masonry is superior to most of the Norman 
rubble work, on which here, as usual in England, smoothed 
squared facing-stones are used. 

The Norman keep and the mediaeval buildings that have 
been connected with it are at an inner corner to the left of 
the main entrance, and form a group that is the important 
portion of the castle, measuring sixty-five by one hundred and 
fifteen feet on the ground. In the centre of the group is an 
irregularly-shaped and grass-grown courtyard, entered at the 
outer corner towards the very large main court or ballium. 



PORTCHESTER CASTLE. 63 

At the right, according to designations now given, was the 
Baron's Hall, and at the left the Banqueting Hall, once hand- 
somely decorated in Pointed style, as also was a smaller apart- 
ment beyond it that bears the name of Queen Elizabeth's parlor. 
At the corner opposite the entrance is the lofty, weather-worn, 
and unmistakable square Norman keep, with walls ninety feet 
high, seven feet four inches thick, still faced with their squared 
stones and crowned by battlements. Like many other towers 
of its class it is divided internally by a cross wall rising from 
the bottom to the top, and contained halls of considerable size. 
The floors and roof remain, and modern stairs lead to the 
latter, from which there is an interesting and extensive view. 
In the distance southward is seen Gosport, and far to the right 
and left of it the low land towards the Channel. Northward is 
a long, grassy, rather elevated ridge, not far off, that extends 
abreast of Portsmouth, and displays, in striking contrast with 
the Roman and mediaeval works, an array of large, red-brick 
and earthen modern forts, that with the floating iron walls of 
England guard the important naval station. 

Portchester in its early days protected a valuable port that 
has moved miles away, and left it to become a quiet place for 
picnics, and its ballium a pasture, standing on land that rises 
very little from the level of the sea and extends a few rods on 
three sides to shallow water. Still, however, the old defences 
are indicated, although the mediasval fosse and glacis are de- 
stroyed. No lordly and commanding crags like those that 
bear the towers of Coucy and Falaise gave their advantages, 
but water, seemingly, was much relied on, too shallow for a 
hostile fleet, too much exposed for boats, too deep for opera- 
tions by foot-soldiers, while numerous bastions provided points 
from which cross-fires could be directed. 

The history of the castle reaches back into an age of fable. 
Rouse and Stowe say that a great stronghold was founded on 
its site by Gurguntus, 375 b. c, but the importance of the 
place probably dates from the Roman period. Tradition says 
that Vespasian landed here. In turn the Saxons used the 
fortress, and then the Normans, by whom it was largely de- 
veloped. Domesday Book records that " William Maldvith 



64 THE NORMAN PERIOD. 

holds Porcestre." He was one of its several lords before 
1299, when the castle and adjoining lands were, according to 
Grose, " settled on Queen Margaret as part of her dower." 
Various owners afterwards held the estate until, at length, 
the castle was made a prison, in which more than four thou- 
sand Frenchmen were confined during 1761, and at other dates 
Dutch and Spaniards, who made breaches in the walls while 
attempting to escape. 

One of the most interesting parts of the castle is at the angle 
farthest from the keep. It is the low, gray, cross-shaped church 
of St. Mary, surrounded by a burial-ground enclosed by a low 
wall. Although the exterior is plain, there is a good Norman 
door, as well as other Norman decorative work at the west end. 
Still in good order and good use, as it has been for seven and a 
half centuries, the edifice is supposed to stand upon the site of 
an earlier church that supplanted a Roman temple. Indeed, 
the place seems to have been used for worship since Jupiter 
was supreme, and throughout the many changes that have 
occurred in England since the cross has been dominant. 

Dover Castle 1 was another Roman work adapted by the 
Normans to their own use, and although its lofty site is in 
striking contrast with that of Portchester, they are pre-eminently 
the two grandest castles on the southern English coast. The 
history of Dover is concentrated in the changes undergone by 
the short word that, in some form, has been its name for two 
thousand vcars. It was Dwyr with the ancient Britons, Dubris 
with the Romans, Dofris in Saxon times, Dovere in Domesday 
Book, and then for a long while known by its present familiar 
name. It is a long narrow town bent around a little harbor, 
chiefly artificial, and the Channel shore, and up a valley that 
runs inland. Closely behind it are high cliffs or bluffs that 
eastward rise more than three hundred feet above the water, 
and bear the extensive walls and area of the castle. Small as 
the harbor is, it is the haven of one of the Cinque Ports, and 
shares their historic honors with Sandwich, Romncy, Hythe, 

i See '* The History of Dover Castle," by the Rev. Wm. Darell, chaplain to 
Queen Elizabeth ; views, etc., folio, London, 1797. Also " History of Kent," by 
W. H. Ireland, 4 vols., London, 1829 (vol. ii.). 



DOVER CASTLE. 65 

and Hastings, — but, unlike them, has kept and increased its 
old importance in communication with France. The castle, 
when seen in the distance, appears like a mediaeval town built 
on the crest of a long, commanding hill, which towards the 
south abruptly ends in precipices towards the sea. Among 
the many travellers who cross the pier, few probably ascend 
the tower-crowned height, and yet it is one of the noblest sites 
in England. A road, that of course is good, leads to it, and 
certainly should be used, if for no other end than the view that 
can be gained from the hill on a clear day, in itself a full 
reward to visitors. Looking southward, the broad Channel 
can be seen extending far to the right and left, and beyond it 
a long reach of white French cliffs, rising from pale sands or 
the sea, and backed by large tracts of rural land. Calais is in 
full sight, as also is a large part of the coast towards Boulogne. 
Westward, and deep down, is seen the town, beyond and north 
of which is a high grassy hill, crowned by a battery. In the 
latter direction is a broken rural country seamed with hedges, 
blending with a wide extent of wavy uplands where there are 
scarcely any hedges, lying eastward. In the foreground is the 
large open area of the castle, bounded by walls and towers, 
prominent among which is the shattered Pharos of the Romans. 
Early in their conquests of Britain they fortified this command- 
ing place, but with works far less extensive than those now 
seen, for they were only " about 400 feet in length, and 140 feet 
in the greatest width," says Ireland. The remains of the 
Pharos are unusually interesting. It is a tower, octagonal out- 
side and square on the interior, about 14 feet each way, with 
walls 10 feet thick in the lower part, and now about 40 feet 
high. According to the same author, the walls are " built with 
a stalactical concretion " in blocks measuring 12 by 7 inches, 
every seven courses of which are separated by two courses of 
tiles. In 1882 the writer found the top broken, and the sides 
gray and ragged. The Romans made this lighthouse or watch- 
tower valuable to commercial intercourse as well as to military 
operations ; the Saxons preserved it ; the Normans fortified it ; 
but in recent times the authorities disposed of the leaden cover- 
ing, — " thus," adds Ireland, " leaving one of the first specimens 

5 



66 DOVER CASTLE. 

of Roman architecture in this island to moulder away." Yet 
certain of the English criticise their neighbors who retop and 
point their ancient works, and modestly talk about the historical 
shams of France. 

The present walls of the castle, built chiefly during the cen- 
turies immediately after the conquest, enclose an area of thirty- 
five acres, six of which are occupied by old structures. Most 
of the outer defensive works are now much impaired, and many 
of the buildings are covered with rough-cast, making them 
dark, plain, and common-place or ugly. But the Norman keep 
is grand. In form and color it suggests the White Tower at 
London, which it resembles in iron strength, with its walls 
rising nearly a hundred feet, tinted by greenish lichens, or 
growing gray where sandstone, once a buff, forms quoins or 
other marked details, but still showing an indomitable body of 
small stones with seams set thick with flints. As usual the 
keep contains large oblong rooms with rude walls, the chief of 
them being a lofty hall covered by a wagon-vault of red bricks, 
built during the wars with Napoleon I. The interior is now 
used as an armory, or for storage. Another interesting struc- 
ture is the very early plain cruciform church, built of gray 
stone, except where the central tower is capped with red bricks. 
On the south side the tower is broken, but the rest of the 
exterior is in good repair, having been recently restored. For- 
merly the interior was obstructed with rubbish and devoted to 
storage or other pious uses, but of late it has been cleaned, and 
also restored. It is plain, rather large, and marked by a curious 
lack of right angles, long straight lines, or perpendiculars. 
There are two tall, simple, round-headed arches built of thin 
bricks, that have a very Roman look ; and a small window, with 
quoins of sandstone in the western front, is said to be Saxon. 
The building stands within the lines of the Roman works, but 
it is difficult to determine how much dates from their time. 
Lucius, a nominal king, is said to have erected the church 
towards the end of the second century, but whatever the age 
may be it is certainly very great. Upon the primitive style, 
various bits of design in Pointed have been grafted, and changes, 
as many as three in the form of the roof, have been made. 



DOVER CASTLE. 67 

There are, indeed, sufficient indications that the church is one of 
the oldest existing in England, older, it may be, than the Basse 
(Euvre at Beauvais, so notable as an early French church. 

History and tradition tell so much of Dover Castle, that it 
has become associated with both throughout the Christian era, 
and details of them must be sought in special works, while only 
a slight sketch of them can be given here. About twenty years 
after the departure of the Romans, King Arthur, it is said, 
enlarged the castle ; perhaps after Horsa, the brother of Hen- 
gist, had held it, as stated by Darell. The kings of Kent 
seem to have used the place to strengthen their hold on the 
country, while peace and religion were helped by a college con- 
secrated by St. Augustine. Some of the great names connected 
with "the making of England" are thus associated with 
Dover. After it had been important for a long time, Earl 
Godwin, father of Harold, the last of the Saxon kings, was the 
commandant, and was succeeded by his son Toston. William 
the Conqueror promptly marched hither from the field of 
Hastings, and the castle was soon surrendered to him. He 
strengthened it, and made use of it for two necessary purposes, 
— a hospital, and a post of communication, while he advanced 
to London. After his coronation and a subsequent return to 
France, he was obliged to remove Odo, whom he had put in 
command at Dover, and give the place to John de Fiennes, a 
relative, who built a wall to connect the towers of the castle, 
that seem to have been previously separated. Various works, 
of which many have been destroyed, or are represented by 
names, were built by several officers under William I. Clopton 
Tower and the Constable's were built by Fiennes ; Gatton and 
Peverell's by William Peverell ; Magminot's, Crevequer's, Ar- 
sick's, Hirst's, and Porth's, were so called from the knights 
who built them. Other towers, Fitzwilliam's, Averanche's, 
Veville's, and the Ashford group on the east side, were also 
Norman. The whole number of towers along the outer line of 
fortifications is about twenty, and there are several more upon 
the inner line. The keep, erected by Henry II., stands in an 
area enclosed by the latter, and was reached by a circuitous 
route that was defensible at many points. Among other works 



68 THE NORMAN PERIOD. 

that were important were two sally-ports under ground, and 
several wells, one of which, in the keep, was 250 feet deep. 

The mighty castle thus associated with great names of the 
Normans, and with the firm establishment of their power in 
England, continued for centuries to be a stronghold, and was 
also an independent seat of judicature. Sovereigns often 
visited it, but it underwent no sieges. In the night of August 
1, 1642, it was, however, taken by surprise, by Drake and a 
dozen strong partisans of the Parliament, who scaled the cliff 
towards the sea, secured the sentinel, and opened the gates to 
a force that soon held the place. As early as 1406 the works 
required much restoration, says Grose, that was then made, 
and that was repeated in the reigns of Edward IV. and Queen 
Elizabeth. According to the practice in the last century, the 
castle was allowed to become ruinous ; but during the wars with 
Napoleon I. it was again made defensible, chiefly to become a 
military prison, where many thousand men, most of whom 
were French, were at different times confined. Although, 
when seen from a distance, it is an unusually imposing medi- 
aeval work, and really embraces a great deal of illustrative 
value, both in history and military art, and stands on a very 
noble site, its condition is still a subject for national attention. 
It is now too much a monument of inappreciative neglect, and 
possibly the saving care that has been, in the main, well shown 
at Blois and Carcassonne may yet be given to the gray, regal 
walls of Dover. 

Upon the north side of the Thames an extensive marsh 
formed a defence from invasion on a portion of the coast of 
Essex, the shores of which for some distance farther had no 
good points for landing. But at length a large inlet of the 
German Ocean penetrated the country and presented a tempt- 
ing place, commanded at its inner end, however, by elevated 
ground of strategic importance, seen and well used probably by 
the Romans, and certainly by the Normans. The Britons built 
there a large town, Caer Colun, replaced, it is thought, by the 
Roman Camalodmium, the walls of which are described on 
page 44. The Saxons in turn occupied the place, and called 



COLCHESTER CASTLE. 69 

it Colne-ceaster, and after severe vicissitudes the Normans 
took it and built the remarkable castle now known as that 
of Colchester. 

Colchester Castle ! is now a ruin that consists chiefly of 
the lower portion of a keep 2 not only the largest in England, 
but among the works of Norman military art. It was twice as 
large as the more widely-known White Tower at London, and 
three times as large as the donjon at Falaise, where William I. 
was born, one of the grandest of the few Norman castles spared 
in France. It dates, very probably, from between 1080 and 
1085, and was the chief feature of a royal castle in a royal 
town. Measuring more than 160 by 126 feet on the ground, 
and once of proportionate height, at least 100 feet, it still rises 
high and strong, although probably deprived of two upper 
stories. The enormous walls near their base slope boldly out- 
ward to increase their strength, which in the upper parts is 
secured by flat buttresses, common features of a Norman keep, 
here more than eight feet wide. At each northern angle is a 
square tower ; at the southwestern there is one larger, and 
flattened, containing a broad winding stair ; and at the south- 
eastern, an immense semi-circular projection that forms the 
apse of the chapel, which, it will be noticed, is thus placed east 
and west according to ancient usage. The walls, of enormous 
thickness, are composed of miscellaneous materials. Sundry 



1 See " The History and Antiquities of Colchester Castle," Colchester, 1882. 

2 Comparative sizes of square Norman keeps : — 



Castle. 






Authority. 


Area in 


feet. 


Square feet. 


Built. 


Colchester . . 


Britton 


166 by 


126 




1080-85 


w 






Jenkins 


168 " 


126 


21,168 




u 






Buckler 


1521 " 


111J 


17,005 




Dover 






Ireland 


123 " 


103 






London . 






Bayley 


116 " 


96 


11,136 


1080-81 


Norwich . 








100 " 


93 


9,300 




Kenilworth 






Britton 


105 " 


80 






Canterbury 








90 " 


83 


7,470 




Rochester 








75 " 


72 


5,400 


12th cent. 


Castle Rising 




Britton 


75 " 


64 


4,800 




Bamborough 




King 


64 " 


58 






fc( 


do. plan 


73 " 


65 






Wind 


sor (round), irregular diameter about 100 feet. 






Norman Keeps in 


France. 






Coucy (N 


■ E. France), 


round, diameter 108, 


height 189 feet. 


F 


xla 


ise 


, Normandy ; 


Hurel, 87 by 68 ; area, 5916 feet 





70 THE NORMAN PERIOD. 

kinds of hard stones are used for most of the facings, and are 
now weather-marked, and like parts from which they have been 
stripped, suggest worn, grayish cliffs of coarse conglomerate. 
There are also what are called cement-stones, brought from 
Harwich, and red tiles, made by the Romans or their more 
immediate successors, that are laid not only in the usual style 
of Roman bonding courses, but also in small masses. Of course 
the mortar, which is good, is Norman. 

A large round-headed arch with toothed and moulded deco- 
ration opens to the vast interior. The northern two thirds of 
this was occupied by three oblong apartments, the western one 
of which was 94 by 39 feet, the central 85 by 16 feet, and the 
eastern 88 by 22 feet. A single little door led from one to the 
other. On the floor above there were similar apartments about 
16 feet in height, used for the garrison, and along the southern 
side was a large chamber communicating with the great wind- 
ing stair, and abutting on the west end of a cavernous and 
massive crypt, now a museum but originally the support of the 
chapel that has disappeared. The crypt is vaulted, and has 
windows placed in deep recesses, but no ornaments. It is dis- 
tinctly Norman in form and orientation ; if the Romans had built 
its arches they would have turned them with more accuracy. 

There has been some animated writing on the origin of this 
remarkable stronghold, and it has been claimed that it was 
once a Roman temple. But all parts at Colchester, especially 
the crypt, so strikingly resemble corresponding parts in the 
great keeps at London and Falaise, the most distinguished 
works of Norman military art and power combined in England 
and in France, that the mute stones are evidences of their 
origin. Interpretations of the early chronicles do not agree, 
but it seems to be determined that this keep, defended by 
extensive outworks, that have disappeared, was built before the 
thirtieth year that followed the invasion of the Normans, and 
was made to be a seat of royal power. Feudalism produced 
for the maintenance of its rule no other tower of so enormous 
size. The mighty keep at Coucy, unsurpassed in France, 
although of twice the height, had hardly half the area. It had 
grander outworks, and a more imposing site, and must be seen 



COLCHESTER CASTLE. 71 

by every one who would obtain a full conception of the strength 
and magnificence of mediaeval military art, but that conception 
will not be completely realized until one has also seen the giant 
of the Middle Ages, bowed by war, and worn by time, but still 
predominant, in this plain, quiet, town of Essex. 

The history of the castle represents the fortunes of an 
ancient English stronghold that has long since ceased to be of 
strategic importance. While the Normans ruled, it was in 
various ways distinguished. Keepers, or constables, held it 
many years for the king. Some, at least, of them oppressed 
the people, and, as was said to have been done in other places, 
filled the castle " with devils and evil men." In 1215, Stephen 
Harengoot, who seems to have been a German mercenary, was 
the royal constable. He made great preparations for a siege 
by the associated barons who opposed the king, and who on 
June 15 obtained the Magna Charta, signed near the still 
more famous keep at Windsor. They had sought and ob- 
tained French help in their resistance, and were enabled in 
November to establish in Colchester Castle a detachment from 
a large force that reached Suffolk. Thus the baronial party 
soon changed here from the offensive to defensive ; for John, 
as soon as possible, tried to retake his stronghold. It was 
a strange sight when an English fortress was held under a 
French flag by Frenchmen, in defence of English liberties. 
But these allies did not prove good substitutes for trusty natives, 
as they made their terms with John, March 24, 1216, and left 
their English hosts to feel his vengeance. In the changes of 
this troubled period, once more however, — yet only for a brief 
time — " the lilies of France floated from the towers of the 
ancient citadel, quivering like stars on the azure banner, as it 
melted into the azure sky." When finally they departed, very 
different masters came, and William, Bishop of London, held 
Colchester for King Henry III., then ten years old. 

" The long catalogue of constables," says an historian of the 
castle, " becomes invested with a very real meaning when we 
discover that these changes reflect in miniature those struggles 
which convulsed the realm from the days of Stephen [1135- 
1154] to those of the second Charles " (1660). Such civil 



72 COLCHESTER. 

discord was frequent in the thirteenth century, and the castle 
was associated with it, but towards the latter portion of the 
time became of less military importance, when the necessities 
for guarding conquered territory were succeeded by more politi- 
cal considerations. At length, in Mary's reign, Colchester, 
that was stoutly Protestant, became a scene of martyrdom. 
Dungeons we may explore confined the victims ; and the walls 
that now glow in the peaceful sunshine reddened with the glare 
of fires that burned them. When Elizabeth was queen, more 
quiet times ensued, varied in 1596, however, by a rebellion of 
a few supporters of the Roman Church that caused some dis- 
turbance. About 1629 the castle became alienated from the 
crown, and when the civil war was waged, the Parliament 
made the old keep one of its prisons. The people of the town had 
" generally espoused its cause," but " finding that they needed 
to restrain its inordinate power, they formed an alliance with 
the royalists," and thus, in 1648, incurred a siege conducted by 
General Fairfax. " After a close blockade for eleven weeks, 
during which period " the town was " gallantly defended, . . . 
the garrison, reduced to the extremity of want and suffering, 
surrendered to " him. Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle, 
commanders, who had been " condemned but not convicted," 
were shot beneath the walls that they had held with valor, — 
" in cold blood barbarovsly mvrdered " (as their tombstone 
states) " for the Laws and Liberties of England." The castle 
soon became " a mere county jail," where Episcopalians and 
Quakers learned how some people held the teaching of peace 
and good-will to men. In 1683, John Wheely bought the castle, 
and agreed to demolish it and sell its materials. He added 
serious destruction to previous dilapidation ; but the strong 
masonry still seen resisted him so stoutly that he happily de- 
sisted. In the succeeding century Mr. Charles Gray for more 
than fifty years owned and protected the grand ruin, and its 
preservation is due to his efforts. It continues to be private 
property, now held " through a descent of seven generations ; " 
and since 1855 the crypt, or chapel, has been used for a mu- 
seum, and the " record room " for a collection of important 
documents. 




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THE TOWER OF LONDON. 73 

Norwich, east of north of Colchester, and an important in- 
land place in the territory of the old kingdom of East Anglia, 
was at an early date secured and fortified by the Normans. 
The enormous keep that they built still overlooks the city, 
environing the hill on which it stands. It is perhaps more 
decorated than any other in the country, and is well preserved, 
for it has been in some degree restored. It is one of the old- 
est large historical monuments of England that has received 
this attention, and the first restored work described upon these 
pages. Early outworks of walls and ditches, " that enclosed 
an area of twenty-three acres," have almost disappeared ; but 
the keep has been spared, — for everyday uses quite as much, 
possibly, as for its value in art or history. Royal keepers, 
prominent among whom were the Bigods, held the castle for 
a long time, and made it a stronghold of the Norman govern- 
ment. It was, however, plundered by the barons in 1266, and 
soon after the beginning of the next century was made a 
prison. This use of it, after an interval, was many years ago 
resumed, and is still continued. The interest of the keep is 
now chiefly on the exterior, which is very imposing; but to 
realize what these mighty structures really were in England, 
it is necessary to examine the famous symbol and proof of 
Norman power erected by the Norman kings at the sea-en- 
trance to their capital. 

THE EOYAL CASTLES. 

The Tower op London, 1 the huge keep that by its vastness 
and predominance gives name to the extensive fortress on the 
Thames, is not only an example of the most ancient strong- 
holds of the realm, but also of the changes in the times and 
military arts by which a Norman donjon became surrounded 
by successive works. In character and history it is unique, 
and its preservation is exceptional. Associations with the trag- 
edies and triumphs of the country, like the flint-stones of its 

1 See Bayley, J., History and Antiquities of the Tower, with Memoirs, etc., 
plates, 2 vols., 4°, London, 1821 ; Wm. R. Dick, Inscriptions and Devices [about 
100] in the Beauchamp Tower, Tower of London, plates, 4°, 1853; Vetusta 
Monumenta, vol. iv. text, and plates 39-52. 



74 THE TOWER OP LONDON. 

walls, have been built enduringly into its vast recording form, 
until it has become a monumental chronicle of England since 
the Conquest, — not only telling of the times of Norman and 
Angevine kings, but clearly connecting them with our own, 
and opening the historic vista through the long intervening 
ages. 

Its site, near the head of the navigable part of the river, 
is one that the Romans may naturally have used. In the Saxon 
period it may not have been important ; but William I. saw its 
value, and some time during the last nine ^iears of his reign 
(1078-1087) co'mmanded that the keep called the White 
Tower should be built. For that purpose a great architect was 
needed and employed ; and he was found occupying an office 
in which military genius would not now be sought, but which 
in mediaeval times could furnish it. He was Gundulph, who 
had been " a monk in the abbey of Bee, in Normandy," and 
then was Bishop of Rochester. His work was very thorough. 
Not only did the Tower guard the approach to London from the 
sea, but it also kept watch over that sometimes free-minded city, 
and in a few years became a place of confinement for prisoners 
of state. Stephen, in 1140, made it, perhaps for the first time, 
a royal residence : but the former use has always much more 
characterized it. Although in the troubles of the following 
centuries it was often a scene of warlike stir, the Tower has 
suffered less in military operations than might be supposed 
from its position. Longchamp, Bishop of Ely, who ruled Eng- 
land after Richard I. departed for the Holy Land, was besieged 
here by Prince John and the confederate barons who opposed 
the chancellor's tyranny, and was compelled to give it up. 
When John was king, he often kept his court here. Before 
the signing of the Magna Charta, in 1215, the barons tried in 
vain to take the royal stronghold ; but after that event, the 
Archbishop of Canterbury held it two months as security for 
the fulfilment of the compact. At the time the French came 
over to help the barons, they held the Tower, and " did many 
excessive outrages in spoiling and robbing the people of the 
country, without pity or mercy." The next king, Henry III., 
repaired, enlarged, and decorated the castle, and often lived in 



THE TOWER OF LONDON. 75 

it. He even attempted, in 1236, to hold Parliament here, and 
twenty-three years later narrowly escaped from being besieged 
here by the barons when he was deemed incapable of reigning. 
The barons held the Tower for some time afterwards, until 
1265, when Henry was restored to his full rank. The next 
king, Edward I., enlarged the fortress, and among other uses, 
made it, in 1278, the prison of six hundred Jews seized on the 
charge of clipping coin. His wars with Wales and Scotland 
also furnished many other captives ; but in his reign and the 
next, that of Edward II., the royal occupation was not frequent. 
In 1330, towards the close of the rebellion that resulted in the 
murder of the latter, Mortimer the traitor was hung at the 
Tower. The victories in France and in Scotland gained by 
Edward III. made it much more noted for the number and 
importance of the prisoners it contained. In 1317, King David 
Bruce of Scotland began his captivity of eleven years. King 
John of France and his son Philip were committed in 1359, 
but were freed in the next year. The troubled reign of Rich- 
ard II. (1377-1399) was intimately associated with the place, 
from his coronation until his body lay here on the way to 
burial at Langley. During the reigns of Henry IV. and 
Henry V., or until 1422, the Tower was chiefly used and noted 
as a prison. Later, in 1450, during the insurrection of Jack 
Cade, it was a refuge of some persons of distinction. Greater- 
interest was associated with it during the long conflict of the 
house of York and that of Lancaster. Upon the day when 
Edward, leader of the former party, was crowned Edward IV., 
in 1461, he here " made thirty-two new knights of the Bath." 
This brilliant scene was soon succeeded by the imprisonment, 
the arbitrary trial, and the execution of the Earl of Oxford 
and other great Lancastrians. Henry VI., their head, was 
kept a captive in the Tower from 1465 to 1471, when he died 
here by causes still uncertain. He was at liberty a short time 
meanwhile, and appeared as king, but soon returned to his 
imprisonment when the Earl of Warwick (the " king-maker "), 
his supporter, was, with many of his party, killed at Barnet. 
This important battle, followed by the victory at Tewkesbury, 
established Edward on the throne and crushed the house of 



76 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 

Lancaster. The brother of the king, the Duke of Clarence, 
who had taken part against him, was, in 1478, committed to 
the Tower, and there, as we are told, on being allowed to choose 
a mode of execution, was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine. 
In 1483 is said to have occurred one of the most memorable 
of the many tragedies of which the ancient prison has been the 
scene. King Edward V., who on April 9 became king, when 
only fourteen years old, was made a prisoner, Avith his brother 
the Duke of York. On the following 26th of June, Richard, 
brother of Edward IV., — " Protector" of the children and of 
England, — seized the throne ; and soon afterwards the myste- 
rious death of the princes occurred. 

The chronicles of the tower throughout this period can be 
read on the pages of Stow and Grafton, Holinshed and Hall, 
and many other writers, but we turn instinctively to an imagi- 
native yet most graphic author, who, as no one else could, 
recreated the departed past and makes it live before us; for 
while we try to recall history wo find that we are apt to have 
more in mind the drama pf old England told by poetic genius ; 
we think chiefly of William Shakspeare. 

The long succession of remarkable events in national and 
personal history associated with the Tower increased in interest 
and variety during the ensuing years, presenting all the wide 
diversities of human life. Jane Shore was held a captive and 
was then discharged to live " begging of many that but for her 
would have been beggars." Henry VII., in 1487, received with 
great state his queen, Elizabeth, daughter of Edward IV., and 
" kept open household and frank resort for all the court." 
Seven years later he sacrificed one of his strongest friends 
when Sir William Stanley came to trial and death. Another 
prisoner was Perkin Warbeck, the pretender, held here before 
his execution at Tyburn. The king often lived here, and his 
queen died here in 1503. His son, Henry VIII., made the 
Tower the scene of many events in his unique matrimonial 
career. Catherine of Arragon was surrounded with courtly 
splendor, and went through the gray gates in a gorgeous 
pageant to their coronation at Westminster. In May, 1533, 
before her death, the king, with still greater pomp, led her 



THE TOWER OF LONDON. 77 

successor, Anne Boleyn, to the same ceremony at the Abbey ; 
and only three years later this second queen was a captive, 
was tried by the royal will, and then executed near the chapel. 
Three more years passed by and Cromwell, Earl of Essex, a 
great advocate of the suppression of the monasteries, felt the 
royal vengeance and ingratitude, that styled him a heretic and 
traitor, and sent him to the block upon Tower Hill. In less 
than six years after Anne Boleyn was executed, Henry's fourth 
queen, Catherine Howard, at the age of twenty met the same 
fate in the same place. The bereaved and saintly head of the 
church had other trials. His position was not fully acknowl- 
edged by all men, and his conclusive logic was used to dis- 
cipline them. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, at the age of 
eighty was made a prisoner, as also for thirteen months was 
the illustrious Lord Chancellor, Sir Thomas More, who was 
condemned without due evidence, and beheaded on Tower Hill, 
June 6, 1535. His parting with his daughter Margaret was 
one of the most touching well-known events that have saddened 
and ennobled the old walls. 

The changes in religious thought before the Reformation 
occasioned the imprisonment and sufferings of many persons 
in the Tower, but the return to the old order of things that 
followed the accession of Queen Mary, in 1553, sent numerous 
victims to it, among whom were several of the most distin- 
guished English martyrs. The long list of those in England 
who, through the sixteenth century, were tormented, beggared, 
or executed, is appalling, not only because it is long, but even 
more because it is familiar. Yet when the record of the 
country is judged by the character, beliefs, and acts of the 
age, and the extreme official violence that prevailed, especially 
upon the continent, both the English laws and people should 
not, in justice, receive a harsh verdict. 

Mary's title to the throne was disputed, and the beautiful 
great-granddaughter of Henry VII., the almost venerated Lady 
Jane Grey, was made a rival by partisans, and became a victim 
of their ambition as well as of Mary's vengeance or necessi- 
ties. She was executed on the Green ; and her husband, Lord 
Guildford Dudley, was beheaded on Tower Hill. The queen's 



78 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 

marriage to Philip II. of Spain was thought to be so dangerous 
to the country that Sir Thomas Wyatt led a rebellion, that 
resulted in leaving many of his adherents captives in the 
Tower. The most illustrious political prisoner during this 
reign was, however, the Princess Elizabeth. Devotion to re- 
ligious principles soon afterwards filled the grim dungeons 
with martyrs of the Reformation, among whom were Bishops 
Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, immediately before their death 
by fire at Oxford. Yet Mary from time to time held court 
here, notwithstanding the dismal experiences of many of her 
subjects around her. 

At length her reign of terror ended, and the night was past. 
The sunshine of November 17, 1558, shone on the accession 
of Elizabeth, and ushered in one of the most glorious reigns 
of modern times. She naturally never made her former prison 
a residence, and with Mary's departure it had ceased to be a 
royal home, for the Stuarts seldom occupied it. Charles II., 
in accordance with the ancient custom then for the last time 
observed, went in unusual splendor from it to be crowned at 
Westminster. With him, on that day, the twenty-third of 
April, 1661, the pomp of royalty left the Tower. It was, 
however, used meanwhile for distinguished prisoners. Robert 
Devereux, Earl of Essex, a victim of enemies ; Sir Walter 
Raleigh, famous in early American history ; the great Earl 
of Strafford, and the aged Archbishop Laud were captives, 
and all of them were beheaded here. Cromwell filled the place 
with royalists, and to it Charles II. in his turn consigned 
regicides. The immortal seven bishops were committed by 
James II., and the Duke of Monmouth was the last eminent 
unfortunate who forfeited life here for claiming the crown. 
The prison that had held victims of all the rebellions, civil 
wars, and persecutions since the days of William I., at length 
held among its latest captives one who well deserved a dun- 
geon, and whose committal made the tower, at least then, a 
place of justice. He was Judge Jeffries. The last executions 
on Tower Hill were in 1746, when Lord Balmerino and Lord 
Lovat were beheaded for aiding the last pretender to the crown. 
Prince Charles Edward. 




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THE TOWER OP LONDON. 79 

The Tower, while it has been a citadel of the monarchy for 
eight centuries, has happily been the scene of few great active 
military operations. It has been rather a reserve of strength, 
a proof of the royal will and power, a monument of the vicissi- 
tudes of sovereigns as well as of subjects, and of the vast 
changes and improvements in social and political life since the 
terrible rule of the Normans. As an example of mediaeval 
military art it has few rivals ; as a memorial of a nation's 
growth and history it may perhaps truly be called unique 
among the works of modern civic architecture. Yet it was for 
a long time valued only as a storehouse, if we may judge by the 
treatment it received. Portions of it of great interest in art 
as well as in associations with distinguished English men and 
women were mutilated. Incongruous buildings and excres- 
cences were added, and the noble effect of the grand structure 
dismally impaired. Intelligent appreciation of it has, however, 
in recent years, caused the removal of some of the deformities, 
and extensive restorations have been made, but scars enough 
remain. The Beauchamp Tower, 1 one of the best known and 
most interesting parts, for instance, had been shamefully abused. 
A work that should have stood, like one of England's barons of 
the Magna Charta, venerable, yet still strong, telling how her 
liberties have been secured, was made to look like a degraded 
ruffian with a bad hat tilted over his black eye. Purists may 
call restoration on the exterior historic sham, but others can 
well think that it was only tardy, needed justice. The neces- 
sary work goes on, and will in time make the east sides of the 
fortress and its river-front seen as they should be. More care 
has been bestowed upon the other sides, and they will now 
much more reward attention. 

Visitors who come down the gentle open slope of Tower 
Hill, or from the busy streets along the river, see the pale gray, 
vast, but low-looking fortress rising near the river, and girt 

1 The views given of this tower before and after restoration are from Mr. 
Dick's quarto, which, dedicated as it is to Lord Combermere, Constable of the 
Tower, is good authority. A reference to the illustrations of the greatest changes 
at Carcassonne, given at page 24 of the writer's "Historical Monuments of 
France," will show that at least as great change has been made in this important 
English monument. 



80 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 

with a deep dry moat. The extent is so great that the height 
is not at first realized. A great five-sided area is enclosed by 
walls of often blackened broken flints relieved by lighter- 
colored quoins and battlements, and* varied in outline by 
rounded towers. Trees grow in some places, and, with their 
cheerful green, soften the grim austerity of the masonry. 
Above all other objects, near the centre, rises a square keep, 
with turrets at each corner, dark and severe, like an immortal 
giant in repose, the famous White Tower. 

In the following description, references are made by letters 
to an annexed illustration, and to the note. 1 After passing 
the outer works at the landward entrance (A), now altered, a 
stone bridge is reached, leading to a deep archway (through B), 
from the inner side of which a street extends eastward. On 
the left of the latter are the main southern walls of the fortress, 
dating from near 1087, and along it on the right is an embat- 
tled structure pierced by a much larger archway, into which 
boats could come from the river. This is the Traitors' Gate 
(II), named thus because prisoners of state were usually 
brought through it. Opposite to it is the largest tower except 
the keep, the huge Record Tower (W), more than fifty feet in 
diameter, in which the archives of the kingdom were kept dur- 
ing several centuries, and from which they were removed to 
the new Record Office. Adjoining it is the Bloody Tower (X), 
" 34 feet long and 15 feet wide," covering the main portal, and 
said to date from the reign of Edward III. (1327-77), when 
many changes were made in the castle. A portcullis and an 
extremely heavy door, studded with iron, show some of the 
details of the early defensive work. Ornament would hardly 

1 A drawing made in 1681-89 by order of Lord Dartmouth, engraved in the 
" Vetusta Monumenta " (Soc. of Ant. London ; imp. folio), iv. pi. 39, and here repro- 
duced in smaller size, not only shows the tower at that date, but serves as a map 
and view of many prominent features still in existence. A is Martin's, or outer 
entrance-tower, B is By-Ward, or second entrance-tower. X is Bloody Tower, 
with portal to the inner court. H is Traitors' Tower and Gate, witli channel to 
the river. L (at left side) is Beauchamp Tower, a (in centre) is the White 
Tower. T (right corner), Salt Tower. These parts, the broad ditch, and most 
of the outer walls and towers shown, now remain. Most of the gabled buildings 
on the court have been altered, removed, or replaced. Tower Hill is at the left 
upper corner. 



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THE TOWER OF LONDON. 81 

be looked for, and there is scarcely any of it except in the ribs 
of a low vaulting over the entrance. The tradition of the 
murder of the two young princes, in 1483, lays the scene in an 
apartment of this tower, but the ill-omened name was given to 
it some time later. 

The large irregular area enclosed by the walls is overlooked 
by portiion of them, or their towers, and by the not very beau- 
tiful church of St. Peters (Y), by incongruous, long, high 
barracks, built in modern " Gothic," and above all by the 
gigantic keep (a). The latter has the chief features of the 
Norman donjons found in France, and also in England ; but as 
a royal stronghold it is naturally on a larger scale than the 
ducal tower at Falaise, and, indeed, surpasses the keep at 
Lochcs. Since the exterior has been mutilated by additions, 
incongruous roofs upon the turrets, and large round-headed 
windows, the original effect must be, to a considerable degree, 
imagined. The interior has, however, by far the greatest 
interest. 

The White Tower (a), 92 feet high, has walls fifteen feet 
thick above the base, where they are much more massive, and 
covers an area measuring 96 feet by 116 feet from cast to west. 
There are three lofty stories, besides the basement, through 
which a wall seven feet thick reaches to the roof, and divides 
the interior into two nearly equal portions. At the northeast 
angle is a large projecting rounded turret containing the main 
stair, of vise or turnpike form. At the east end of the north- 
ern side the semicircular apse of the chapel stands out boldly. 
Against and outside of the southern wall, upon the ground 
floor, is the Horse Armory (about 150 feet by 34 feet), finished 
in 1826, in what was called " Gothic " style, and containing a 
magnificent collection of old arms and armor, the British 
counterpart of the collections at Vienna, Paris, Madrid, and 
Turin. Another part of this museum is in the tower itself. 
The interest and value of the illustrations of past modes of 
warfare is evident. Greek, Etruscan, ancient British, Celtic, 
and Saxon weapons are shown here, besides a great variety of 
mediaeval armor. Some of the oldest of the latter is on a 
mounted figure representing Edward I. (1272-1307), sugges- 

6 



82 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 

tive of the early wars against the Scots, and Bannockburn 
(1314.) There are several suits that date from the times of 
the wars with France, and those of York and Lancaster ; in- 
deed, the series is well shown from early chain-mail, through 
the varied suits of full-plate armor, to the helmet and cuirass 
of Charles II.'s time, the most recent articles preserved. 
Besides English and other European armor, Asiatic is also 
abundant. Among the numerous curiosities or relics are the 
axe and block said to have been used at the execution of 
prisoners of state, and thumbkins and other instruments of 
torture, most of which, they say, were found in the Spanish 
Armada in 1588 ; but the collection of the latter sort of articles 
is insignificant compared with that at Hanover or at Munich. 

The second floor has greater architectural importance, and 
contains the chapel, considered the noblest of its kind built by 
the Normans, but it may be smaller than one that was in the 
upper or destroyed part of the keep at Colchester. It is a nave, 
with aisles, and an apse, about 57 feet long, and reaches to 
the roof. All parts are very massive, and the style is simple to 
austerity. Divine service was discontinued at a date not now 
certain, and public records were stored here at least as early as 
the reign of Charles II. The original character of the place 
was of course lost, in aspect as well as use. In 1240, Henry 
III. had repaired and decorated the chapel, and at some period, 
probably much later, it had been covered with a coat of plaster, 
recently removed. At present something like the original 
freshness and effect are apparent, and the massive features 
and cold gloom are in keeping with the old sternness of the 
fortress. 

The arrangement of the upper floor is like that of the one 
beneath it, but the rooms are larger (for the walls are thinner), 
and the height is greater. The bare, plain, heavy wooden frame- 
work, that is fully shown, as in the " Council Chamber," seems 
to be more appropriate to a garrison than to a court. " In- 
deed," says Mr. Bayley, " throughout the whole of this majestic 
edifice, not the slightest appearance remains of there having 
been any fireplace or well ; nor does there exist any vestige of 
arras or tapestry, with which, we may presume, that the State 



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THE TOWER OF LONDON. 83 

apartments at least were formerly decorated." The changes 
that have occurred through several centuries will account for 
the existing bareness and the lack of furniture, but the more 
permanent details described by the historian, indicate that 
comfort was subordinate to strength and durability in the keep. 
There is none of the magnificence shown in some of the French 
and German mediaeval castles that have been restored, nor is 
there any hall with the peculiar grandeur that the upper one 
at Coucy must have had when it was entire. 

The Beauchamp Tower (L), already mentioned, is one of the 
most interesting parts of the fortress. It was built, like a large 
part of the outer works, at the beginning of the thirteenth cen- 
tury, and stands nearly midway along the western wall, from 
the exterior of which its side projects in a semicircle, a form 
common with the other towers. Thomas de Beauchamp, Earl 
of Warwick, was probably confined here in 1397, and hence 
the name. Extensive restorations, outside and inside, have 
given the tower more of its early character than it had had for 
a long time. The most remarkable portion of it is a room, on 
the main floor, of moderate height, and about twenty feet 
square, from which the two outer corners are cut off. The 
old embrasures have been filled, and there is now a window 
on each side. A winding stair leads to the door shown in the 
illustration, and another door opposite to it communicates with 
two small cells. This room, with bare stone walls, and once 
with scanty light, is famous by reason of the number, rank, or 
character of the prisoners of state who have been kept in it, 
and for the many curious inscriptions carved by them, chiefly 
near the middle of the sixteenth century, and still to be seen. 
The attempt to place Lady Jane Grey upon the throne resulted 
in the confinement of John Dudley, Earl of Warwick, and Lord 
Guildford Dudley, both of whom seem to have left mementos. 
The supporters of Mary Queen of Scots were more numerous 
here. Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, Arthur and Edmund 
Pole, Egremond Radclyffe, only son of the Earl of Sussex, and 
Charles Bailly, a messenger, left their names or other carvings. 
Near the entrance are the arms of the Peverels, and the name 
of Marmaduke Nevile, supposed to have been made by mem- 



"84 THE TOWER OF LONDON. 

bers of two well-known families. Mr. Bayley tells the long and 
touching story of these captives, and gives large engravings of 
their works. 

Defensive military art of the Middle Ages can be studied at 
the Tower, although with less advantage than at Carcassonne 
and other French places. When more excrescences are cleared 
away and farther restorations have been made, the opportunity 
will be of course much better, and some of the English can 
more fairly realize the difficulties encountered by their neigh- 
bors in similar attempts. While restoration or reconstruction 
have given parts (the Beauchamp Tower for instance) some of 
their early aspect, much more is needed and proposed. A 
wise change, said to have been much desired by Prince Albert, 
is by degrees now being made, and the use of the buildings for 
hospitals, barracks, and arsenals, with the attendant incongrui- 
ties, will be discontinued. Even now, however, there are few 
other great mediaeval fortresses so complete and clearly illus- 
trative of the past in peace and war ; none can rival the Tower 
of London in size or in historical associations, and great praise 
is due to the wise patriotism that preserves this priceless 
monument of the English nation. 

There is another castle that also is so representative of 
English history, at and since the Conquest, and so national in 
character that it, like the Tower, should not be described in 
any limited class of monuments, but as it is, a tout ensemble 
of almost every feature of the arts and institutions of the 
country for eight centuries, so far as any structure could 
express them, and to the details of which it is a noble intro- 
duction. While the sterner power and the defensive skill of 
the government are chiefly and clearly shown at the Tower, 
the stateliest life of peace, guarded indeed, is shown with as 
much distinctness at Windsor, and on a far grander scale and 
with incomparably more magnificence and beauty. The ex- 
treme change in the architecture of the country from that of 
the Norman keep to that of the modern palace, with all that 
the change significantly shows, is revealed. The countless 
stones, each of them in its place, do not need to bear lettered 
lines to present their record, obvious to all, that England, once 



WINDSOR CASTLE. 85 

the prize of foreign adventurers, has, by wise conservative 
improvement, grown to be the mistress of an empire owned 
by millions, even to the gorgeous East whose almost countless 
people, estimating power as it is shown by the amazing splendor 
of the art of India, look here to be impressed by the magnifi- 
cence and dignity of their crowned sovereign. 

Plain, calm, English strength, and charming English rural 
beauty everywhere surround the castle, and the times of discord 
and of terror that caused its huge keep to rise have passed 
away from it, while a far truer, nobler empress than ever 
Rome gave Britain lives there secure in the affection and 
respect of myriads who follow Brahma or Mahomet, as well 
as the Cross. 

Windsor Castle ] stands on a commanding ridge above the 
Thames, twenty-four miles westward from the Tower of London, 
and, with its three wards or courts, forms an oblong area 
measuring nearly fifteen hundred feet from east to west, and 
covering more than twelve acres. Tradition shows, in dreamy 
indistinctness on this site, poetic visions of the court of 
Arthur and the early age of chivalry, and history tells us 
that the spot pleased William I., and that he built and fortified 
a hunting-seat upon it, " where he held his court in 1070." He 
also increased the area of the surrounding forest and arranged 
the parks. The hunting-seat was afterwards made a palace, 
and Henry I. enlarged it in 1110, and Henry II. held a council 
in it in 1170. Edward III. was fond of Windsor, where he 
was born, and rebuilt most of the castle, near the middle of 
the fourteenth century, leaving " the chief part of the present 
structure " except as it was changed by the remodelling under 
Wyatville in the reign of George IV. William of Wickham, 
the famous architect, and several hundred workmen were 
employed by Edward. The most beautiful and sumptuous 
part then built was the collegiate chapel of St. George. 

1 Hakewill, Jas., The History of Windsor and its Neighborhood, 4°, plates 
London, 1813. Ritchie, L., Windsor Castle and its Environs, 2d ed., 8°, plates, 
London, 1848. Nash, J., Windsor Castle, Views, imp. folio, London, 1852. 
Wyatville, Sir J. (R. A.), Illustrations of Windsor Castle, text and large 
plates, atlas folio, London, 1841. Also, Pyne, W. H., Royal Residences, etc., 
3 vols., imp. 4°, London, 1819. 



86 THE ROYAL CASTLES. 

Other sovereigns successively made alterations or additions, 
and, in varying degree of time, resided at the castle. It was 
strengthened by Charles I., but was seized by the Parliament 
and held throughout the Civil War. In 104:2 Prince Rupert 
made an ineffectual attack on it, one of the very few warlike 
events of which it has been the scene. Charles I., in 1648, 
l> kept his sorrowful and last Christmas at Windsor," where 
he was then confined. During the interregnum, and conse- 
quent disuse of the castle as a palace, it became a prison. 

The captives held here, if less numerous than those kept 
in the Tower, were of unusual distinction. The first known 
was in William II.'s reign, — the Earl of Northumberland, who 
was confined for thirty years. In 1849, King David II. of 
Scotland, and several French lords then prisoners were ad- 
mitted to the tournament and feast given when the Order of 
the Garter was founded by Edward III. Seven years later the 
victor at Poitiers took John of France thence to the castle and 
kept him two years, and in 1357 gave in his honor the most 
magnificent tournament of the Edwardian period. Richard II. 
secured here the lord mayor of London, while he put the alder- 
men in less stately places. James I. of Scotland, captured in 
1405. when only eleven years old, was kept much of the time at 
Windsor until 14:23. He was the " royal poet" of whom Irving 
wrote, and was treated with deference and was well instructed. 
" Perhaps in this respect," says Irving, " his imprisonment was 
an advantage." 

The pomp and courtesy of chivalry, or the events of courtly 
life, have for eight centuries shaped the associations that have 
given a character to Windsor in marked contrast to that of the 
Tower. It is like a brilliant civil or domestic drama that dis- 
plays great features of the nation's life, compared with historic 
counterparts in tragedy. Much of its oldest existing scenery 
shows the power and genius that could be directed by King 
Edward III., who arranged some of the most splendid of the 
early scenes. The institution of the Order of the Garter, the 
installation of the knights, and pageants that ensued, had a 
significance and stateliness that made them ceremonies worthy 
to be ideals of the age of chivalry, and to inaugurate the palace 



WINDSOR CASTLE. 87 

destined to be through the coming centuries the home of British 
royalty. Edward III. was not only a victorious general and 
powerful king, but also a magnanimous and courteous knight. 
His bold, strong spirit was expressed in the two lines on his 
device — a white swan gorged, or — used in a tournament, 

" Hay, hay, the white swan ! 
By God's soul, I am thy man." 

In 1416, Henry V. magnificently entertained Sigismund, 
Emperor of Germany, at Windsor, and in St. George's Chapel 
" put about his neck the royal sign " of knighthood that he 
afterwards wore " on all public occasions. This compliment 
to the English nation was the cause of great offence to the 
French," says Pyne. The Court was frequently at Windsor in 
the reign of Henry VII., who " greatly improved the castle " 
and erected many parts of St. George's Chapel, one of the 
most picturesque buildings, that remains until the present 
time. Among his guests was Philip of Castile, in 1506. 
The Emperor Charles V. of Germany was some years later 
installed a knight of the Garter by Henry YIIL, who, it should 
be added, continued the improvement of the castle. Possibly 
the earliest minute account of it extant was written in his reign 
by Hentzner. 

Queen Elizabeth was fond of Windsor, where she spent 
much of her time. She built the unrivalled northern terrace, 
and is said to have walked on it an hour every day. The liter- 
ature of the nation, that grew and flourished so remarkably 
throughout her reign, began to add the charms of its associa- 
tions to the old historic palace and the adjacent country. Her 
Majesty herself translated here " Boethius de Consolatione 
Philosophise," in twelve working days of two hours each. She 
was the first sovereign who established a stage in the castle for 
what is now called the legitimate drama, the plays on which were 
performed by the children of Windsor, St. Paul's, Westminster, 
and the Chapel Royal. It is thought that Shakspeare, at the 
queen's command, wrote " The Merry Wives of Windsor," the 
scenes of which, we know, are laid in the old town and park. 

When Christian IV. of Denmark was in England, he was 
entertained by James I. with royal hospitality at the castle. 



88 THE ROYAL CASTLES. 

Charles I., who, like his predecessors, often occupied it, was 
chiefly distinguished as a captive in his ancestral home, where 
Cromwell, Ireton, and others " sought the Lord," and called 
on Parliament to seize him. After the death of Charles I., 
the patriots in power disposed not only of the furniture and 
ornaments, but also of the precious works of art that had 
been gathered in the palaces; and Spain, Sweden, Germany, 
and France were enabled to acquire great treasures, that the 
nation with even its subsequent vast wealth has not been able 
to replace. 

During the interregnum the castle was much injured, and 
among other attentions bestowed on it, the political interpreters 
of Christianity who then ruled defaced St. George's Chapel, 
and made it a stable. 

Charles II. repaired and re-embellished the castle, employ- 
ing Sir John Denhani, and then Sir Christopher Wren, as 
masters of the works. He also was the patron of Verrio, the 
Neapolitan, who painted such vast areas of ceilings here and 
elsewhere in the country, and of Grinling Gibbons, the 
extraordinary master of wood-carving. " No other sovereign 
since the illustrious Edward III.," says Mr. Pyne, "had ex- 
pended so much upon the castle as Charles II." Few changes 
were subsequently made in it for nearly one hundred and fifty 
years, and many of the state apartments remain nearly in the 
style in which they were redecorated during this reign. 

James II. caused the designs to be completed, but he seldom 
lived in the castle. It was the scene of one of the memorable 
events in his time, when, in 1687, he received the Pope's 
nuncio, with great state, and of another when William III. 
here " struck the blow which removed him from the throne." 
William also did not often live at Windsor, but, like his two 
predecessors, helped to increase the valuable collection of 
paintings. During the eighteenth century, says Hakewill, 
"Hampton Court and Kensington were the favorite royal 
residences." 

In 1824, George IV. began the restoration, or remodelling, 
of the castle, " on a scale of magnificence far exceeding its 
former grandeur," says Mr. Poynter. Jeffry Wyatt, knighted 



■". — — 1 -— 




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* 






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WINDSOR CASTLE. 89 

Sir Jeffry Wyatville, was the architect under whose direction, 
in the course of a few years, it was given its present form and 
aspect. The extent and thoroughness of the restoration, or 
rebuilding, the largest work of the sort in England, is indicated 
by the amount spent during three years, £388,000, and by the 
many illustrations in the sumptuous atlas folio l published for 
the executors of Sir Jeffry. The edifice does not show repro- 
duction of former designs or imitation of old forms so much as 
it does a new work in an ancient national style modified ; for it 
is not a mediaeval castle, but a modern palace built in castellated 
and civil varieties of the Pointed style, with the old spirit that 
adapted them to new uses to be served. The result is one of 
the most appropriate, majestic, and picturesque palaces in the 
world. It crowns a height with an enormous diadem of battle- 
mented walls and towers, strong with their pale gray stone, but 
cheerful with their traceried windows, and rising from a garland 
of fresh oaks and elms that add their grace to its imperial 
dignity. Created by the Middle Ages, and with marked features 
of its origin, it has grown to a stately form that nothing sprung 
from them and fashioned only by them could have equalled. 

The castle has at least six chief and peculiar features, — the 
wards, tho keep, the chapels, the state apartments, the north 
terrace, and the entrance by the Long Walk. 

The lower ward, towards the west, the one first entered 
from the town, has a long irregular area. Across the upper 
end is a huge mound, upon which rises the circular stone keep, 
the ground plan of which shows an irregular bent circle about 
a hundred feet in diameter, increased by a bastion to 125 feet. 
It is much changed since the Middle Ages. The old rooms 
have been altered to suit modern uses, and in the reign of 
George IV. the walls were raised 33 feet, so that the height 
above the roadway at the base is now 128 feet to the top of the 
bold battlements. A flag-tower rises 25 feet higher, and a staff, 
that bears the royal ensign, makes a total height of 203 feet. 

2 Parts of two plates from this volume are given here, showing the south 
iront ot the castle before and after the restoration, or the changes made, the 
extent of winch is indicated. Other parts had been more disfigured and were 
more altered. A view of the same front from the farther end of the Long Walk 
is given at page 94. 



90 THE ROYAL CASTLES. 

The view commanded from the roof of this huge tower is 
worthy of the regal castle of the nation, reaching as it docs 
over parts, or all, of twelve counties, from Essex and Oxford 
into Kent and Wilts. The fair diversity of English dale and 
hill, green fields and dark luxuriant forests, quiet hamlets, 
noble seats, the graceful, winding river, the great dome of St. 
Paul's, and stately Eton, all are seen. Beneath the low roofs 
near by and the old oaks farther off, the " Merry Wives " whom 
Shakspeare made talked with John Falstaff. On the other 
side is the still churchyard of Stoke Pogis, scene of Gray's un- 
dying " Elegy," and some way beyond, Chalfont St. Giles, 
where Milton sat in his quaint house composing " Paradise 
Regained." Towards the east is Richmond Hill, to tell of 
Thomson's " Seasons." In the vale below is Runnymede, 
where Magna Charta was obtained. The wide park spread 
around has seen the four and thirty sovereigns since the day at 
Hastings, and the castle close below has been their home. Two 
miles away is where the Saxon kings held court before them. 
From the prosperous present, thought and fancy lead one 
through the past, filled with its stirring stories, to the dim and 
stormy early periods, grown poetic in the vista of the ages, 
when King Arthur, and the Romans, and mysterious Druids, 
also knew this same broad scene. The associations of two 
thousand years of British history and romance are crowded 
here. The power and beauty of the literature, faith, and art 
of England make the landscape charming and inspiring. It 
was not fashioned by the decree of a " Grand Monarch ; " its 
growth and exquisite completeness mark the increase and the 
character of a great people animated by a spirit that has kept 
fresh, and, like the green leaves on their oaks, has renewed 
itself as the years roll around. 

St. George's Chapel stands along the northern side of the 
outer ward. Although it bears the name of chapel, it is larger 
and much richer than arc several of the cathedrals in Great 
Britain and in France. It replaces chapels built successively 
by Henry L, and Henry III., about the middle of the thirteenth 
century, the last of which was enlarged by Edward III. The 
present structure was begun by Edward IV. and finished in the 



WINDSOR CASTLE. 91 

reign of Henry VIII., and consequently is in later Pointed 
style. Repairs and changes were occasionally made before a 
general restoration in this century. The exterior, brownish in 
color, and somewhat worn and venerable, is moderately orna- 
mented, but depends for much of its effect upon the numerous 
tracericd windows. When seen at a distance, the commanding 
site makes it imposing. The interior, built throughout of 
pale, buff-brownish stone, in perfect order, is cruciform, and has 
an effect of great length, but not of great height. There are 
elaborate mouldings on the clustered shafts and Tudor arches, 
and the vaults are intricately ribbed, as they are only in Eng- 
land, and profusely ornamented with bosses, enriched with gold 
and vermilion. While all the windows are large and filled 
with fine Perpendicular tracery, one of them at the west end is 
exceptionally splendid with ancient colored glass, and has few 
rivals in the kingdom. The choir, as usual in this country, is 
enclosed by stalls, that here are very high and of dark oak 
superbly carved. On staffs placed far above them are the many 
gorgeous banners of the Knights of the Garter. The contrast 
between this elegant, resplendent, spacious chapel of the 
Tudors and the massive, sombre Norman chapel in the Tower 
of London, is indeed impressive ; for the wide changes in the 
arts, resources, and condition of the nation in four hundred 
years, could hardly be made more manifest. 

The upper ward, or great quadrangle, is the grandest of its 
kind the world can show. It does not, like the French chateaux 
at Blois and Fontainebleau, present designs left by its several 
builders, and thus become a monument of national styles ; it is 
a stately and harmonious modern composition in the later 
Pointed, used in civil buildings of the country, kept in perfect 
order. Elegance, simplicity, and massiveness are its chief 
features. The material is stone, iron-gray in color, laid in 
small blocks in the walls, and larger in the window-casings, 
traceries, and other prominent details. Upon the northern 
side of the quadrangle is the state entrance, an arched porch, 
and at the southeastern corner is the private royal entrance. 
The number of rooms in the castle is, of course, immense. 
Those that the sovereign occupies in daily life are numerous 



92 THE ROYAL CASTLES. 

and elegant, commanding charming views, and furnished with 
a vast amount of splendid bric-a-brac and works of art. 

The state apartments form a vast and noble suite that shows 
a great diversity of styles. Some of the older rooms retain 
much of the decoration given them in the reign of Charles II., 
— dark oak casings to the doors and windows, that might be 
called classic, carvings done by Gibbons, and ceilings painted 
by Verrio. The pictures, particularly portraits, are very 
numerous ; one room, indeed, on this account is named the 
Zuccarclli, another the Rubens, and another the Vandyke. 
Sir Peter Lely's Beauties are displayed in really overwhelming 
number. There are also the white, green, and crimson draw- 
ing-rooms, so called from the prevailing color. The most 
magnificent of the apartments is the ball-room, in the style of 
Louis XIV., with walls of peach-tint color, panelled, and much 
covered with elaborate raised scroll-work superbly gilt. It has 
a single window, immense and traceried, opening towards the 
north, and a wide and noble view. The Waterloo Gallery, 
occupying an area formerly a court, and lighted from the top, 
contains a large collection of portraits of distinguished persons 
• — sovereigns, generals, and statesmen — who were prominent 
at the time of the great battle. There is a high oak wainscot, 
above which is a richly-figured wall, tinted green. (Many 
years ago it was a sort of chocolate tint.) The ceiling, by its 
form, suggests that of a mammoth steamboat cabin, colored an 
olive drab. St. George's Hall, used for state dinners, is impos- 
ing by its size, but is finished in questionable modern Gothic. 
On one side is a range of portraits, along the other are windows 
opening on the great quadrangle, and at the upper end a throne, 
opposite which is a gallery. The wainscoting, that is compar- 
atively low, and the beams of the ceiling, are of oak. The 
portrait of the founder, Edward III., may be seen in the 

Note. — The size of some of the apartments is given by Ritchie, London, 
1848: — 

Guard-Chamber 78 feet long, 31 feet wide, 31 feet high. 

Ball-Koom 90 " 34 " 33 

Queen's Presence Chamber . . 49£ " 23^ " — " 

Waterloo Gallery 98 "47 " 45 

St. George's Gallery .... 200 " 34 " 30 



-— if/f 




WINDSOR CASTLE. 93 

chapter-house of St. George's Chapel, together with his sword 
of state, six feet nine inches long. Adjoining the hall is the 
guard-room, with a flattened vaulted ceiling, light drab-brown 
in color. Its outer end is over the state entrance. Arms of 
different periods are arranged upon the walls, and many other 
curious objects are exhibited, among them a portion of the mast 
of Nelson's ship, the " Victory." 

The most superbly decorated portion of the castle is, how- 
ever, less intended for the living than the dead. It is the 
tomb-house that adjoins the east end of St. George's Chapel, 
begun by Henry VII., and continued by Cardinal Wolsey. 
Charles I. proposed to make it a royal burial-place, but was 
prevented by the Civil War, during which, in 1646, it was de- 
faced. James II., about forty years later, had it fitted for the 
ceremonials of the Roman church, and Verrio added some of 
his painting. During the next century the edifice grew much 
decayed, but when the castle was remodelled it was put in 
order, and recently has been most superbly decorated, and 
re-named from Prince Albert, to whom her Majesty has made 
it a memorial. England contains no place more sumptuous and 
beautiful than this chapel, that covers his form with its elabo- 
rately ribbed and richly-painted vaulting. Traceried windows, 
filling all the upper portion of the walls, admit light toned by 
gorgeous colored glass, and rise above a solid base entirely 
covered with large marble panels, on which Scripture scenes 
are sculptured or incised, and with elaborate bands of inlaid 
polished stones, relieved by squares of sculptures done in pure 
white marble. Even the mirror-like mosaic pavement is fit for 
the table-cover of a drawing-room. At the three-sided eastern 
end is the altar, and before that the Prince's tomb, bearing his 
recumbent figure, with the head supported by two angels. The 
whole body of the monument is covered with elaborate sculp- 
tures, all in pure white marble, backed or banded by dark 
mottled marble. With noble appropriateness the historic 
Pointed style of England, her wealth and best modern taste 
and training have here been tributary to affection, that has laid, 
amid all this refinement of elaborate beauty, the statue of one 
of the noblest princes of her thousand years of greatness, one 



94 THE ROYAL CASTLES. 

who so well exemplified the grace of Christian culture, and 
deserved the title, Albert the Good. 

The views of the exterior of the castle are so numerous and 
good that they cannot be fully comprehended in a single visit, 
or a single illustration or allusion. One of them is not only 
grand but superior to any other of its kind. It is that obtained 
from the Long Walk, an avenue of elms three miles in length, 
extending from the chief or south front of the castle into the 
Great Park. Along this stately vista the prospect between the 
great trees to the regal group of towers is an ideal one of 
feudal grandeur combined with modern power and culture, and 
is worthily matched by the view from the terrace on the other 
or north side of the castle, where the vast edifice is seen rising 
closely on one hand, while opposite to it a vast extent of charm- 
ing scenery, intensely English, is displayed. 

The history, art, and literature of England, and her institu- 
tions for eight centuries, can indeed have no more impressive 
monument than that grown with their growth, and crowning 
with its stately picturesqueness the familiar heights of 
Windsor. 

Enough has already been said to show the style of castles 
built by the Normans to hold their communications with France 
and their possessions in England, to guard the chief city, and 
to protect royalty. At the same time a conception has been 
given of the stern ponderous strength of their earliest work, 
and of the long future, tragic or brilliant, through which it was 
to endure, to be crowned by lasting power and final glory. 
Looking from many a keep, from the high shattered walls at 
Rochester, or the far-distant battlements at Richmond, from 
lofty Dover, royal Windsor, or dismantled Norham, we can 
realize, as from no printed page, the wildness of the country 
and its social forces, when toiling hands and lordly power 
built such enormous guards of conquest. We who watch the 
peaceful coming and the quiet blending of far larger multi- 
tudes among the people of the " Greater England," can look 
at the time-worn stones with thankfulness that we live in a 
happier age, and be glad that the ancient island, for its own 



THE NORMAN PERIOD. 95 

sake and the world, for which, with all its failings, it has 
done so much and yet will do much more, has grown so fair 
and prosperous. 

The advent and establishment of the Normans in England 
was in many ways a most decisive conquest. They thoroughly 
secured and firmly held the country, and imposed their laws, 
while through great trials much good was effected. Yet one 
hesitates to say that the native English people were then — 
or ever — really conquered. They survived the shock and 
wear, and in time, to no slight degree, were blended with the 
new race. Traces, often not small, of Jute and Angle, as well 
as of Norman, have marked portions of the inhabitants even 
to our time, but centuries ago all were as one in general 
character, as one in nationality. The English people bowed 
for generations, but arose the stronger from the struggle and 
the union. 

In the Norman period the historic features are almost as 
marked as was its opening. William I. was one of those rare 
men of enormous inherent power, with great opportunity, who 
used both to their full extent, and, as is still rarer, one who 
seems to have impressed his own personality upon a nation. 
Even his huge stature, iron will, deep wisdom, and tremendous 
strength, seem to prefigure the enduring sovereignty that he 
established. He had ambition to impel and genius to perform, 
a readiness to seize, and yet some sense of justice to administer. 
He could impose submission and keep order when both were 
much needed. Avaricious, ruthless, and odious to his English 
subjects, he had withal the qualities of strength that were, it 
may be, indispensable in his rude age for laying the foundations 
of an empire. 

After his death (Sept. 9, 1087), and that of his successor, 
William II. (1100), Henry I. reigned thirty-five years, through 
two thirds of which peace prevailed in England, and gave some 
rest and gain. The feudal system, modified, had been estab- 
lished, the Crusades begun, and wars in France waged. While 
the accounts of the condition of the country through this reign 
are conflicting, they seem to agree that in the next, Stephen's 



96 THE NORMAN PERIOD. 

(1135-1154), it was deplorable. To civil wars regarding the 
succession to the throne, and struggles with the Scotch and 
Welsh, were added baronial strife and tyranny and the worst 
possibilities of feudalism. Well might John Rastell, the old 
chronicler, say (1529) that Stephen " was in warre and trouble, 
and great vexacyon, all the terme of his lyfe." 

In 1154 the Plantagenets came to the throne on the accession 
of Henry II., under whom the future United Kingdom of Great 
Britain was first shaped. As Rastell has quaintly condensed 
the history, Henry " put vnder his owne dominyon the Kyng- 
dome of Wales, and there let fall downe many great woddis, 
and made hye wayes. He wanne Irelande by strength. He 
subdued Wyllyam Kynge of Scotlande, whiche at that tyme 
hylde a great parte of Northumberlade vnto Newe Castell vpon 
Tyne, and ioyned Scotlande to his owne Kyngdome, from the 
southe occean to the northe yles of Orkeys, and made all these 
landes as vnder one pryncipate." 

The Norman period in turn was blending with a greater, 
continuous to our time, that may properly be called the English, 
that during which the consolidated elements of the nation have 
worked out its grand career. Memorials of the former period 
remain in castles and cathedrals that will be described here- 
after. It is time, however, now to turn from civil or military 
subjects to those of faith and action long growing in the land, 
the monuments of which are proofs, as well as symbols and 
illustrations, of a power stronger than any which raised the 
massive keeps, and which has done far more to make 
England. 



THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART 
IN ENGLAND. 

CHRISTIANITY in Britain, although it was established at 
an early date and exerted a strong and active influence 
for many following centuries, produced few monumental works 
to mark its history before the Norman period. The numerous 
earlier buildings for its services have nearly disappeared. Their 
insubstantial nature, the effects of time, and, chiefly, the needs 
or purposes of later generations, have caused them to be sup- 
planted by the greater edifices, now grown venerable, around 
which gather the associations with the work of faith. In writ- 
ten compositions and in the deep lines of character, the earlier 
history lives. Its few memorials in art are sought by the pains- 
taking antiquary for their lessons, but in the array of things 
visible and influential or of general interest now, they have so 
much less importance than more recent works that only a mere 
allusion to them can be made here, as a preface to descriptions 
of the great monuments of the Church built by the Normans. 

A list of Saxon fragments given on page 434 helps to show 
both their nature and their number and position. A represen- 
tative example, and perhaps the chief, illustrates the simplicity, 
or even rudeness, of English art before 1066. The parish 
church at Earl's Barton in Northamptonshire has a stout tower, 
on the exterior of which is what might be called elementary 
tracery. There are suggestions of the Rhenish Romanesque, 
but there is an individuality that makes it English and expres- 
sive of the race that built it ; and its curious and sturdy self, 
worn by a thousand years, should long continue to show how 
securely, even if in simple style, the Saxons shaped and kept 
God's house in England. 

When the Normans came, with their peculiar Romanesque, 

7 



98 THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND. 

so marked that it has for a long time borne their name, they 
found the churches and cathedrals of the country far too hum- 
ble to be suited to their grander tastes and larger knowledge. 
Their power enabled them to make these qualities efficient, 
and to produce the noblest works of Norman art, still eminent 
among the monuments of many ages gathered in the land 
whose history they changed. They found the institutions of 
the Church established ; it was their part to develop them and 
to surround them with far greater dignity and beauty. 

While they were erecting castles and the massive keeps that 
were to make their power secure, they also were enlarging or 
rebuilding parish churches, monasteries, and cathedrals. An 
account of what is called the Norman style permits, or needs, 
a treatment different from that suited to descriptions of its 
more important monuments. These last are scattered, and 
combined with work of other schools and ages that supplies an 
even more material portion of the subject followed on these 
pages. It would not be easy to unite particulars of date, posi- 
tion, and detail of each succeeding style, and at the same time 
give a sketch of each cathedral, each an individual monument 
with marked peculiarities, yet one of a group unrivalled in 
importance. 

Accordingly, the writer has prepared a table that will show 
at once the growth of each of these great structures, represen- 
tatives of both the art and history of centuries, and the styles 
or work accomplished and existing, from the Norman period 
to current restorations or rebuilding. In a second table, the 
dimensions of. each are arranged. After these, and general 
observations on religious art in England, a brief monograph 
on each cathedral will follow, with especial reference to its 
associations, chief peculiar features, and existing aspect. 

The Romanesque styles that sprang from the fragments of 
the Roman arts left in the Middle Ages were as varied as the 
races that developed them. They spread from Sicily far north- 
ward to the lower Rhine and westward to the ocean shores of 
Normandy, whose bold, inventive people, gathering suggestions 
elsewhere and exerting their own genius, formed a school that 
has left noble works at Caen, Falaise, and other places. The 



NORMAN INFLUENCE. 99 

Normans built very massive walls with flattened buttresses, 
small windows, and low, deeply recessed doorways, and they 
used ponderous round arches. Mouldings, often strong and 
simple, were, in more developed work, set off by curious zig- 
zag, toothed, and twisted figures that were frequently concen- 
trated around the doorways. Pillars, usually short and stout, 
bore quaint and generally simple capitals, and were, at the 
openings in the walls, made small, but in the great arcades of 
churches were of a prodigious bulk. The plain stone that these 
builders found and used of course had influence, and imposed 
some limits on their work. They did not have Italian marbles, 
the dark lavas of Auvergne, or the red bricks of northern Ger- 
many. They had pale, cold, stern stone, and that well suited 
them and their designs. 

The Normans quickly gained full control of England, and, 
as already stated, soon began to improve the churches through 
the country. Four years after their victory at Hastings, they 
began a crypt and two great towers at Canterbury, the re- 
nowned scene of the early triumphs of their faith in England. 
Seven years later, at Rochester, about half way upon the road 
to London, they began a new cathedral in place of one built by 
the Saxons, and its nave is said to be the oldest now in Eng- 
land. Almost contemporaneous with it is much of the east 
part of the vast abbey-church at St. Albans (recently made a 
cathedral), and also the existing crypts at York and Ripon. 
Within a period of thirty years ensuing, the Normans also 
built a cathedral at Chichester, and another at Winchester, of 
which important parts remain. At Exeter, in the far West, 
they built another, shown now by two curious transept towers. 
At Worcester and Hereford are portions of two more cathe- 
drals, dating from 1079 and later. At Gloucester they re- 
erected the monastic church of St. Peter, parts of the nave of 
which (changed in the eleventh century) are now important 
features of the cathedral, into which the structure was con- 
verted in 1541. In the eastern counties they raised the mag- 
nificent nave (and other parts) at Ely ; and at Norwich, all the 
lower portions of an edifice of great length, that is thought to 
show the most perfect Norman ground-plan in existence. On 



100 THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND. 

the north road, dating from 1118 to 1200, is their cathedral 
at Peterborough, Norman in almost every part. In the North, 
at York and Ripon, under later structures, are their crypts ; at 
Carlisle, relics of their nave ; and at Durham, the grand master- 
piece of Norman art, still theirs in its chief parts, a demonstra- 
tion that their power was none the less near the remotest 
border of their kingdom than it was in Dover or in London. 

After the middle of the twelfth century, a new and very dif- 
ferent style that had been growing in the north of France was 
introduced in England, — at first by slow degrees, and then 
rapidly, until, as in France, it completely displaced the old 
Romanesque. 

The Pointed style, appropriately named from the form of its 
arch and from the acuteness of its gables, pinnacles, and spires, 
in time spread from the Atlantic into eastern Germany, and 
from the Orkney isles and central Sweden far south into Italy. 
In these different regions, it developed into schools as widely 
different. The Italian, German, French, Flamboyant, and latest 
English were peculiar to the countries where they flourished. 
The features of the style were, at first, in England, blended 
with the round-arched style, but they quickly asserted their 
fresh power and everywhere prevailed. 

The first period of the Pointed style there, called the Early 
English, is distinguished by tall, narrow windows, without 
tracery, and generally grouped in twos or threes, and some- 
times fives (as in the most magnificent example in the north 
transept at York). The pillars showed extreme reaction from 
the ponderous Norman, and were very slender, but were clus- 
tered where great strength was required. The capitals were 
richly wrought, and vase-like curved to wreaths of foliage con- 
ventional in form, that grew out from them. Mouldings were 
contrived to give a great effect of light and shade. The 
buttresses were deeper, and the true spire first appeared. 
The ceilings, although groined, were simply ribbed, and roofs 
were made very high and steep, thus adding grandeur to the 
building, and serving well to turn away the abundant rains. 
"Westminster Abbey, the east part of Lincoln, and the whole 
of Salisbury are the chief examples of this style. 



THE POINTED STYLES. 101 

Towards the end of the next century, the thirteenth, changing 
tastes and greater means and skill developed what is called the 
Decorated Pointed. It was coeval with the first three Edwards, 
and hence sometimes called Edwardian. As its most known 
name implies, the ornament was generally more profuse, but 
this fact in itself does not express the most important charac- 
teristics of this period or school. It was " the most complete 
and perfect " that has grown or flourished in the country, dis- 
tinguished for its gracefulness, its gabled niches, crockets, 
complex and effective mouldings, and especially by its much 
larger windows filled with tracery. These last, in their head- 
ings, had at first set forms, like circles and the four-foiled 
openings that have since become so common, and at length, 
curved flowing lines that blended into shapes of charming 
beauty, — master-pieces of design, in which geometry grew to 
be poetry, while it retained its prose precision. Nearly all of the 
cathedrals in the country had been built, much as we see them 
now, before this period, but portions of each one date from it. 
The spire at Salisbury, the noblest in England, almost the 
entire interior at Exeter, the nave and chapter-house at York, 
and the east end and matchless window at Carlisle are mag- 
nificent examples of the Decorated English Pointed. 

The third form of the Pointed style developed in the country 
was coeval with the Tudor kings, and consequently has been 
called the Henrican or Tudor, and, from its peculiarly abun- 
dant upright lines, the Perpendicular. The mullion, main and 
minor, is the striking feature of the window traceries. The 
walls are panelled in a similar design, the roofs are low, 
and arches are low and four-centred. The central tower at 
Canterbury, the Presbytery at "Winchester, many parts at Man- 
chester, and, surpassing every other, Henry VII.'s surprising 
chapel at Westminster, are imposing representatives of this, 
the last school of the Pointed style in England. There, as 
upon the Continent, the Renaissance displaced it, and for three 
centuries the truly national styles were neglected. Their re- 
vival, that began about a hundred years ago, has marked a 
brilliant recent era in the arts of Britain. 

Sculpture grew, and fairly flourished, with these schools of 



102 THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND. 

Pointed. Painting as applied to architecture was, to some 
extent, employed, but never had the prominence in England 
that it had in France, and more especially in Italy. The use 
of colored glass, while it had influence in enlarging windows, 
as it did in France, was not as general as it was there ; nor 
are, or were there such superb examples. 

England, notwithstanding the havoc that occurred in the 
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contains in her cathedrals 
numerous precious and often richly decorated tombs, objects 
now so sadly missed in France, that are an offset to the latter's 
great superiority in ancient painted glass. An unrivalled charm 
is given the English cathedrals by grounds with exquisite green 
grass, flowers, or noble trees, that in some form now encircle 
each of them by a zone of beauty, keeping them apart from 
common things, to stand calm and venerable in majestic love- 
liness, while constantly offering invitation to their hallowed 
shrines. The world has never had a fairer region near God's 
house than many a close by a cathedral in old England. Con- 
ventual or Episcopal buildings grouped around form also, in 
some places, most effective settings to the grander structure, 
and have an uncommon picturesqueness. 

The English cathedrals, while showing the general styles 
and forms common to others built in western and northern 
Europe during the Middle Ages, have their own marked char- 
acteristics. In ground-plan they were made cruciform, thus 
constantly suggesting the faith that reared them, and the high 
altar was at the east end, while at the west was the main front, 
with the chief entrances and towers to hold bells. The Lady 
Chapel was placed at the farthest east ; around the choir and 
on the east side of the transept were minor chapels for saints, 
and along the choir and nave were aisles. The edifice, although 
always in a city or large town, was never built directly on the 
streets, but, unlike most cathedrals on the Continent, stood in 
its own grounds. The peculiarly English features of a plan 
common in France, Spain, Germany, and Scandinavia, are great 
length, especially compared with the height, unusual extension 
of the transept, marked development of a central tower or 
spire, small western portals, a north porch oftener much finer, 



CHARACTERISTICS OP THE CATHEDRALS. 103 

a very large upright west or east window, or both, and less 
sculpture than would generally be used in France or Spain. 
The Romanesque, many-sided, or round east end — the pre- 
vailing form in France, and retained there through the periods 
when the Pointed style was dominant — was used in England 
by the Normans, and is shown in their work at Canterbury 
and Norwich, but in native forms of Pointed a square end 
was built, as in notable examples at Gloucester, Lincoln, and 
York. Westminster shows a grand exception to the rule. 
Bell-towers, detached from the main building, often found in 
Italy and as far west as Bordeaux, were not adopted in Eng- 
land, where the one example is at Chichester. The Italian 
Baptistry, mosaic, and mural painting were also almost un- 
known, as also were the French chevet and vast and richly- 
sculptured portals. Yet at Peterborough is a unique west 
front, with three enormous arches covering the entrances. 
The ranks of saints and heroes and great groups of ancient 
worthies and angelic hosts that look upon all who approach 
the glorious doors of Amiens, or Reims, or Chartres, presenting 
the whole Bible and the truths of faith, so that the most un- 
learned would know them, are not seen in England. But at 
Salisbury, Wells, and Exeter, across the western fronts were 
line on line of kings, nobles, and ecclesiastics, showing all the 
people who came near the great confessors and maintainers of 
the word in their own -land. The cloisters common in southern 
Europe had counterparts throughout England, less stately than 
some in Spain, less decorated than others in Italy, but nowhere 
more charmingly picturesque than at Salisbury, Lincoln, or 
Gloucester, and very seldom elsewhere now so well kept. A 
second and smaller transept is also, to some extent, English. 

The vicissitudes through which the cathedrals in England 
have stood have been great ; few others have endured more. 
Most of those in Spain are not as old, and there the faith of 
the founders has not been changed by revolution, nor have 
politics and war in Italy with all their frequent marked results 
had, until recently, effects like those of the Civil War and 
Reformation. France has, indeed, passed through " religious " 
wars and the fury of the "Age of Reason" with deplorable 



104 THE CHURCH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND. 

results that are more comparable, and something less of this 
remark may be applied to Germany. In England the cathe- 
drals show the changes in the tastes and styles that have pre- 
vailed there through eight centuries, the transformation of the 
Reformation, violence to ancient institutions, and the spoliation 
in the reign of Henry VIII., the melancholy iconoclasticism of 
the great Civil War, and then the destructive and even more 
dismal church-wardenism of the eighteenth century. The havoc 
at the Reformation may have been unavoidable ; that of the 
Civil War was done in hot, but far too unfeeling, blood. It is 
more than unfortunate that the grand qualities and precious 
services of Puritanism were then dishonored by the treatment 
that befell God's house in its stateliest form, full of the nation's 
memories of worth and piety. But for the cold blood of the 
church's guardians, as shown afterwards at Salisbury, Here- 
ford, and Durham, there is less apology. 

The feeling and the thought, as well as acts, of five and 
twenty generations have been registered upon the stones and 
wood of these cathedrals of old England. Norman strength 
and sometimes weakness, rude yet stately, and the later medi- 
aeval piety that lavished all it could apply upon the shrine in 
which it worshipped, war and passion, spiritual deadness, fervent 
love with exquisite refinement, and brutality in deed and char- 
acter, are all recorded, and so also is the fresh vitality and 
spirit in our time, precursors, we may hope, of a far longer, 
grander future. 

When Milton's verses prove that he was ignorant and irre- 
ligious, and Watt's engine shows he had not heard of steam, 
the grace and glory of the Pointed style will cease to demon- 
strate that men with genius, skill, and pure and noble thoughts 
lived in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, and the resto- 
rations or rebuildings that have been of late so general will 
fail to also demonstrate that they have now worthy successors, 
who can use well the wealth and refinement of the present. The 
brutality that far too much marked English character a hundred 
years or more ago, revealed in so-called discipline at sea, in 
public institutions, in the treatment of miners and of children 
in factories, with all the exasperating and disgusting detail, is 



IMPORTANCE OP THE CATHEDRALS. 105 

revealed in different but as striking ways by the excrescences 
inflicted on cathedrals, and such outrages as those perpetrated 
on the chapter-house at Durham or the ancient glass at Salisbury. 
On the other hand the immense improvement and far truer Chris- 
tian spirit growing in our time and replacing former evil, as they 
are removing architectural deformity or mending past damage, 
bring opportunity, now seldom unimproved, for leaving due and 
unmistakable record on the nation's monuments, as well as 
evidence in its character that gives confidence for the future. 

No mere dull antiquarianism leads us through these edifices, 
but warm sympathy with men whose genius and devotion, shown 
in many periods, have left works wrought by their hearts and 
souls as well as hands, and so expressive of their character 
that we can through these hold intercourse with the builders. 
One who does not feel a sympathy with them, with what they 
felt, and what they tried to do, will lose much of the pleasure 
to be gained in their churches ; one who disbelieves, or only 
cares to gaze coldly, will find that the town outside is pleasanter. 
As features of the human face are few, yet endless in variety, 
so are those of cathedrals. One can never see all their diver- 
sity and expression. Every moulding, corbel, cusp, and capital, 
is full of meaning of some sort, and still more are the sculp- 
tured altars, telling of immortal life, and the carved tombs 
and lettered stones around them telling how mortality blends 
with it when the glories that the splendid shrine prefigures will 
no longer be unseen. Around these venerable cathedrals, the 
history, character, and sense of beauty of the people, with the 
power and grace of the deep faith of England, appear in forms 
that are visible, making all they embody real to us, and the 
land fairer and more lovable and precious. The hearts of the 
builders have been English, and they have built each throb in 
with the stones wrought to make shrines that have long kept, 
and we may hope will save for all time, the unique record of 
the steadfast piety and wise endurance that have made the 
small wild island become the throne of world-wide empire, 
telling its people of this every day, and that the nation's 
strength and glory will endure while they, like what they 
signify, remain secure. 



106 



DATES AND STYLES OF MEDIAEVAL CATHEDRALS IN ENGLAND. 



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110 THE CHUECH AND CHRISTIAN ART IN ENGLAND. 

The Church, episcopal in organization from the earliest to 
the present time, almost from the beginning a great and active 
power, strong in resources, and one of the chief patrons of 
architectural art, produced an immense number of monumental 
structures. Under allegiance to Rome for over a thousand 
years, thoroughly developed, concentrating means, and nearly 
supreme in influence, her ministrations for the whole people 
were as great and pervading. She then built all the cathedrals 
(except parts of a few and St. Paul's, which replaces one lost 
by fire), all the numerous and often vast monastic edifices, and 
nearly countless parish churches. Of the Reformation, when 
the ecclesiastical government became exclusively English, free 
and progressive modern England herself, with her enormous 
energy, her matchless prayer-book and literature, and her 
unrivalled colonization, is the great monument. Its details 
are the ruined monasteries, the cathedrals in strength and 
grandeur and much of their beauty, — deprived of ancient 
shrines, but crowned by altars of renewed faith, — and, like 
them, the thousands of parish and other churches. Of differing 
beliefs and polities that followed the Reformation, the chief 
monument has really been raised in important elements of the 
history and character of New England, great as may be their 
like in the elder country. In doing good, the Ancient Church, 
not unlikely, exceeded our means of estimating; and if her 
discipline was severe to cruelty, — tyrannical and bloody we 
may now think it, when judged by itself alone, — it came of 
long prevalent belief that toleration was participation in error 
or sin. If English acts under this belief are judged by those 
of their own time, English men do not suffer. The Ancient 
Church planted Christianity and its civilization in the land, and 
there maintained both through more than twelve centuries, 
— good reason why her monuments still spared are precious. 
The living Church now there, in brighter light of better days, 
pursues the work of faith with a devotion never yet surpassed, 
from which it seems as if no generous heart can keep its sym- 
pathy, and which Old England well may favor, for it seeks to 
establish her salvation through the long hereafter, both for 
finite time and the immeasurable. 



THE CATHEDRALS. 1 
SOUTHERN" CATHEDRALS AND CATHEDRAL CITIES. 

CANTERBURY 2 is a thoroughly old English city, altered 
until it suits the wants of the people who now live in 
it. Some relics of the mediaeval works built to protect it are 
found in a few, gray, deep-arched gateways flanked by towers. 
Imposing and suggestive, although scanty fragments of its 
famous ancient monastery still remain, as well as the old 
narrow crooked streets, lined by low, quaint houses, that 
recall the Stuarts or the Tudors and their times. The neat 
shops and sturdy thrift of an active living people are every- 
where apparent, completing the vista from to-day far back 

1 General works on the Cathedrals : — 

King, D., Cathedrall and Conventuall Churches of England and Wales, 61 
views, ob. folio, 1656 (chiefly interesting as an early work on the subject) ; 
Willis, Browne, A Survey of the Cathedrals of England and Wales, with their 
entire history, 32 large plates, 3 vols., 4°, London, 1742. 

In the earlier part of the present century far better and adequate illustrations 
were published, as follows : — 

Britton, John, The History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Churches of 
England, fully illustrated, 4°, separate vols., London, 1816-36. (The writer's 
copy has about a thousand extra plates.) Rochester, London, Ely, Chester, 
Manchester, Lincoln, Ripon, Durham, Carlisle, and the recently made cathedrals 
are not comprised. Storer, Jas., History and Antiquities of the Cathedral 
Churches of Great Britain, 254 plates of 28 cathedrals, 8° (and 4° large paper, 
proofs), London, 1814-19; Buckler, J. C, Views of the Cathedral Churches of 
England and Wales, with Descriptions, royal 4°, London, 1822; Winkle, B., 
Architectural and Picturesque Illustrations of the Cathedral Churches of Eng- 
land and Wales, text by T. Moule, 180 plates, 3 vols., 4°, London, 1835 ; Murray, 
John, Handbook to the Cathedrals of England and Wales, 362 woodcuts, 7 vols., 
post 8°, London, 1861-74 (Southwell, Newcastle, etc., are not comprised; St. 
Albans, 1 vol., 1877) ; Wild, Chas., English Cathedrals, colored plates, imp. 
folio, London, 1831. 

Special works on single cathedrals are named inhere they belong. 

2 Dart, J., History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Canterbury, 
70 plates, folio, London, 1726 ; Woolnoth, W., A Graphical Illustration of the 
Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Canterbury, royal 4°, London, 1816 ; Robert- 
son, W. A. S. (Dean of Canterbury), The Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral, its 
Architecture, History, and Frescos, plates, 8°, London, 1880; Willis, Rev. R., 
The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, cuts and plans, 8°, 1845. 



112 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

into the distant period when their Norman and mediaeval an- 
cestors were as stirring in a different manner. Concentrating 
associations with all these periods, and surrounded by the town 
while yet secluded in its own calm precincts, stands the vast 
cathedral, not only by far the grandest object yet built in the 
city, but one of the glories of the kingdom. 

The Cathedral of the Primate of all England is made worthy 
of its rank by the variety and grandeur of its design, as well 
as by its associations with the history of religion in the country 
since about the year 600, when its site was consecrated by 
St. Augustine. 

Christianity had flourished in a large part of Roman Britain, 
it is thought, but had nearly disappeared there during the in- 
vasions of the northern pagan races, many generations of whom 
held the country. The great Benedictine Prior of the Coelian 
Hill at Rome, whose piety inspired him to attempt to Christian- 
ize the then wild people on the distant island, came with forty 
monks, and Ethelbert, the Saxon king, was baptized June 2, 
597. Numerous conversions quickly followed, and an episcopal 
establishment of a broad compass was designed, that, in the 
sequel, left the primacy at Canterbury. Closely outside its 
walls, St. Augustine founded the extensive monastery that has 
borne his name. The king gave him a royal palace in the 
town, and an old church near by, upon ground now covered 
by the cathedral. While the distracted, sombre, earlier Middle 
Ages felt the influences of the Church, and had their part in 
her long history, they left little here of general interest beside 
the great fact that they kept her institutions, as a long night of 
gloom and storm might preserve them for coming light. 

St. Augustine's ancient edifice was restored in the tenth 
century, but in the latter part of the eleventh was a ruin, and 
since then its fragments have disappeared. Lanfranc, of Pavia, 
a monk of Bee, then famous as a seat of learning, who became 
the first Norman archbishop in 1070, reconstructed the cathe- 
dral. Anselm, his successor, re-erected the east part of his 
church, — a work finished some years later by Conrad. In 
1174 a fire caused a second re-erection of this part, that was 
completed in 1184. Between 1378 and 1410 a new transept 







^BURf CA^H^%l|g 



CANTERBURY. 113 

and nave were built, and a great central tower was added near 
the end of the fifteenth century. The variety of styles is' con- 
sequently great, for all the works from that of Lanfranc are 
now represented, and compose the existing church — "a worthy 
shrine for the memorials of almost every reign in English 
history with which it is thronged." Westminster Abbey is the 
only other spot more " closely connected with the history of 
the country." 

The cathedral yard, or close, is entered at the southwest 
through a richly ornamented but now worn and blackened 
gateway. As soon as it is passed the exterior of the great 
church is seen, built of smoothed stone now a dark earthy 
gray, except the newer western tower that has a brownish 
tint. All parts are in good order and repair. The front and 
side, revealed thus at an angle, show late Pointed work, a lofty 
aisle and roof, and three tall towers, broad and square, accented 
at each angle by a huge pinnacle. Beside the nearest is a deep- 
arched porch, built about 1400, placed where the Saxons, and 
all the people after them, have entered. 

The interior, as often is the case, at first imposing in effect, 
grows more impressive as it becomes more familiar. The ma- 
terial used throughout is fine-grained stone, a whitish-buff in 
color, relieved by slender, dark-green Purbeck marble pillars 
in the choir, and gilt and colored bosses on the vaulted ceilings. 
Every part is in good order. There is, besides, some of the 
old, rich, colored glass ; but there is a great deal more that is 
new, distributed in the west front, in some bays of the aisles 
and clerestory of the nave (where there are figures of prelates, 
saints, and kings), and most of the same parts of the choir, 
at the four ends of the transepts, and in two windows at the 
eastern end. 

The grandest view of the interior is perhaps obtained beneath 
the central tower, the vaulting of which rises 130 feet above the 
pavement. The late Pointed nave, with lofty aisles, has a ma- 
jestic and superb effect from its elaboration, height, and ele- 
gance ; it rivals that at York, and is, perhaps, more sumptuous. 
The choir, upon the other hand, raised for the crypt below it 
and reached by steps, has a depressed effect, and seems too 

8 



114 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

low ; yet when it is examined it is rich and beautiful, and filled 
with objects of great interest. Each of the arms of the main 
transept is only one bay long, and has a double-bayed chapel 
eastward, — a form of plan unusual in England, as also is that 
of the east end of the choir. An English end is generally 
square, and filled by one large window ; but the French archi- 
tect of this part gave it the French form of a semi-circle, 
pierced by several arches. All of the eastern part of the edifice, 
indeed, is curiously irregular. The coloring of the choir shows 
great contrasts, for the walls are very light, the ceiling white, 
and the many Early English slender pillars banded to the walls 
or piers are dark-green Purbeck marble. The body of the choir, 
as usual in the larger mediaeval churches, is separated from the 
aisles by a high screen. Here, on each side, it is formed by a 
row of noble monuments and by stalls, above which rise high, 
glazed traceries of white stone. Midway, stands the arch- 
bishop's throne, a new work, finely carved in the same kind 
of stone. At the east is the altar, on a pavement raised about 
twenty steps above the main floor of the choir, and behind it 
is a reredos with very high and open Pointed tracery. On this 
upper level is another choir, or a retro-choir, that occupies the 
eastern apse, and is called Trinity Chapel. The pillars of its 
great arcade are coupled, and have massive, graceful, foliated 
capitals, much resembling early French Pointed work. 

East of the apse and its encircling aisle is a still more 
peculiar feature, BeckeVs Crown, a round chapel with a high 
arcade and windows, a triforium, clerestory, and vaulted ceil- 
ing. The architect was " English William," who succeeded 
the French William, builder of the apse. Its history is, like 
its design, unique. It is the chief existing feature of the 
edifice, associated with the famed archbishop who was mur- 
dered in the north transept, about five o'clock in the afternoon 
of Dec. 29, 1170, by knights who acted with mistaken zeal for 
Henry II. The site, but not the actual scene, of the event 
remains. Thomas a Becket, thought to be a martyr, was soon 
made a saint, and for his death the king performed a strange 
and rigorous penance, prolonged throughout the church. A 
gorgeous shrine placed in Trinity Chapel, was dedicated to the 



CANTERBURY. 115 

murdered ecclesiastic, and even the cathedral, for a period, bore 
his name. Pilgrims, in great numbers, came to it from near 
and far. Among them, in 1177, was Philip, Earl of Flanders; 
next the archbishop of Reims, and, two years later, Louis VII. 
of France, all with large retinues. The shrine, almost incredi- 
bly rich, was despoiled in Henry VIII.'s time. An elaborate, 
tesselated marble pavement, once before it, still remains aston- 
ishingly fresh, the chief relic of its splendor. 

The monuments form one of those collections that are among 
the chief glories of the English cathedrals, and that help to 
make them pre-eminent in northern Europe. Most of the 
works are of mediaeval date and design, and are placed in 
the eastern parts of the edifice. In the chapel of the great 
south transept (that was built about 1370, in Perpendicular 
style), where a glance at the memorials may begin, is a large 
monument, placed in the centre and bearing three recumbent 
figures, — Margaret Holland (1437), having at her left her first 
husband, the Earl of Somerset (1409), and at her right her 
second (1421), who was the second son of Henry IV. In the 
east wall is seen the head of the stone coffin of Archbishop 
Stephen Langton, who did much to gain the Magna Charta, 
and who divided the Bible into chapters. At the side of the 
choir are monuments to Archbishops Sudbury (1341), Stratford 
(1348), Chichele (1443), Kempe (1454), Bourchier (1486), 
and others. The first named is of a characteristic English 
form, — long, with a high canopy, and open on both sides. 
Another form is shown at the north end of the main transept, 
in the monument to Archbishop Peckham (1292), a noble 
single-arched, and gabled recess in the wall, and another to 
Archbishop Warham (1532), with a very elaborate three- 
arched canopy, also above a recess. Around the sides and 
apse of Trinity Chapel, from north to south, are monuments 
to Henry IV. (1413), Dean Wotton (1567 ?), Cardinal Chatillon 
the Huguenot, Archbishop Courteney (1396), and the Black 
Prince (1376). The royal monuments are of an altar form ; 
each of them has upon it a recumbent figure, high above which 
is a large flat canopy. Dean Wotton's is a Renaissance sar- 
cophagus, on which he kneels before a desk. These works 



116 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

should be carefully examined, for they are worthy representa- 
tives of several early periods of English art, and are parts of a 
collection such as can rarely be found. 

The vast crypt stretched beneath the choir has few, if any, 
rivals. It is groined throughout, and in the western part — 
built between 1070 and 1109 — has low arches, borne by short, 
small Norman pillars ; and in the eastern part — that dates from 
1178 to 1184 — is higher, more massive, and has ribs across 
the vaults. A dim light comes through small windows, and 
reveals long vistas of round shafts and blended arches. Here 
in the sombre shades the Huguenots escaped from Prance, and 
Flemings from the Duke of Alva, shielded by Elizabeth, held 
for years their own services amid the silk-looms with which 
they earned their subsistence. Still more remarkable, at least 
in art, is the small Chapel of St. Gabriel, long walled up and 
forgotten, where there are frescos of the twelfth century, with 
coloring still good, and showing a large number of curious 
figures in Biblical subjects. They were engraved for Dart in 
1726, and have been recently produced in chromolithography 
for the Kent Archaeological Association. 

The minor parts of the cathedral are remarkable both for 
their number and their character. 

The cloisters are late Perpendicular, but show fragments of 
the Norman it replaces. They give a pleasant introduction 
to those quiet, venerable walks that still remain attached to 
several cathedrals in the country, charming places for day- 
dreams, and for something better. Still retaining and making 
us realize the repose of earlier times, and of the studious or 
thoughtful churchmen who have paced the worn stones of their 
pavement, we may well feel that our feet, like those of John 
Milton, should not fail to tread them. The now busy world is 
full of L' Allegro, but in these small, secluded, gray arcades 
from which it is shut off, II Penseroso lives and tells us of her 
pleasures. 

On the east side is a door that opens to the chapter-house, 
another of the stately, picturesque creations of old institutions 
scattered through the country, and connected with almost 
every one of its cathedrals. The world has never had else- 



ROCHESTER. 117 

where fairer and nobler rooms for business, and they are 
properly made worthy of a business that has care of souls. 
There are about twenty large or ancient English chapter-houses, 
of which twelve are oblong, and eight are polygonal, — this at 
Canterbury being of the former shape, and very large. It is 
surrounded by a rich arcade, above which are large windows 
filled with Perpendicular tracery. The roof, of Irish oak, is a 
peculiar arch, filled with geometrical tracery, arranged on seven 
flat faces, giving a peculiar form to the outside that is four- 
pitched, and an early model of the gambrel roofs so common 
in New England more than half a century ago. 

The minor parts — the Deanery, a Norman staircase, thought 
to be unique, the library, school, and ruins of the dormitory of 
the abbey — can be only mentioned here, to indicate how much 
more there once was, and how much still remains to interest a 
visitor. 

Rochester is a small city, built upon a point of land around 
which winds the river Medway. On a low hill at one side, and 
near the water, are the ruins of the castle, dating from the 
Norman period and later. The outer walls, of which parts 
still exist, enclose an area of about four acres, now a lawn 
and garden, where the chief object is the keep, begun about 
1078 and finished in the reign of Henry I. Its walls, like those 
of the outworks, are gray, and ivy-clad. They are a hundred 
feet in height, and eight to thirteen feet in thickness, and are 
built of Kentish ragstone, with quoins and various casings of 
Caen stone, laid in very strong cement that is mixed with 
small shells. The interior, now open from the ground-floor 
upward, had three large and two minor stories, the second of 
which former was 22 feet and the third 32 feet high. There is, 
as usual, a dividing wall across the centre. On the upper main 
floor were magnificent apartments (46 by 21 feet), connected 
by four noble, decorated arches. In the wall, entirely around 
the upper part, extends a gallery with twenty-five small win- 
dows, some in pairs, and all with an effect far more appropriate 
than Wren's openings in the White Tower at London. In one 
of the four turrets at the corners of the keep (each one of 



118 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

which is really a large tower) is a turnpike stair of rubble, 
leading to the top. The view commanded from it is extensive. 
Northward is the river and its shipping, Chatham, with its 
dockyard, and, west of that, a low ridge. Southeastward is an 
open rural country. Westward, beyond the castle, town, and 
river, are low hills with fields and woodlands. Southward is 
the best part of the view, extending far up the valley of the 
winding Medway that is bordered by the same sort of low hills. 
The old defensive details of the castle are impaired, but the 
ruins show well how the works once guarded the town and 
river, and especially the cathedral that rises eastward, almost 
under them, simple and iron-gray, and one of the oldest large 
English churches. 

Rochester Cathedral is unusually low and seems more so 
because it is placed on low ground, and is more crowded by 
surrounding buildings than is common in England. It is 
exceptionally plain outside, built chiefly of small broken 
stones, and blackened by exposure, or patched with new work 
done in light earth-brown stone, with which the central tower 
is refaced, as also are the low west gable and the large win- 
dow under it. Throughout the interior the walls have a very 
pale color, resembling that of Caen stone. The ground-plan 
shows a cross, of which the choir or head, as sometimes 
is the- case in England, is the longest part ; but the main 
arcade and triforium of the nave are more peculiar, or remark- 
able, for they are considered to be the oldest in the country. 
They are Norman and much ornamented, especially the trifo- 
rium, a very high one ; but are injured in effect by a clerestory 
in poor Perpendicular. Above them is a new low-pitched roof 
of oak, simply designed and showing a frame with horizontal 
tie-beams, in contrast with groins of block chalk in the north 
transept, and of new dark oak in the southern. Both the tran- 
sept and the choir are Early English, and have a great deal of 
dark, slender shafting, giving a spotty effect. On each side 
of the choir is a solid wall, the lower part of which is painted 
in an ancient pattern, since extended, chiefly of a deep dull- 
red color. Above the painting are arcades in slight relief. 
There is a second shorter transept that, together with the 



CHICHESTER. 119 

Lady Chapel, makes a cross-shaped choir, beneath a large part 
of which is a dark and good, though unpaved, crypt. One of 
the notable features of a cathedral is apt to be its colored 
glass. Here this is chiefly new, and in memorial windows in 
the choir and the main transept. There are few monuments. 
Among the details peculiar to Rochester is an elaborate and 
well-kept doorway to the chapter-room, cut in fine drab stone. 
The eastern portion of the edifice is complicated, presenting a 
massive and picturesque exterior, irregular, and simple almost 
to rudeness, but a veil that Nature, throughout England, spreads 
upon old walls, imparts its grace, and green, dense ivy drapes 
the hard gray stones and makes the east end beautiful. 

Chichester 1 is situated in a flat and fairly wooded country, 
and by its plan as well as its name, shows clearly that it has 
grown from a Roman camp ; for the great square figure of the 
castrum crossed by two main intersecting streets remains. 
On page 48 the outer walls have been described, and little 
needs to be added about the streets, that have few unusual 
features. At the centre of the city is, however, a remarkably 
large cross, said to be now the best in England, — one of the 
sort that in the Middle Ages stood in some conspicuous part 
of a town. It was built by the bishop, in 1501, in late Pointed 
style, and is octagonal, having an open lower story entered 
through arches. Over this is a closed story surmounted by 
pinnacles and tall ogee flying buttresses that form a crown, 
tipped by a little belfry rising fifty feet above the pavement. 

The Cathedral, near the cross, and bordered on the north 
side by a burial-ground, with grass and trees extending along 
the west main street, is, in its general style, early Pointed, 
and is built of stone that has grown dark gray ; and even the 
new central spire, built since the old one fell in 1861, is brown- 
ish gray. The chief peculiarities of the exterior are an eastern 
end with an unusually long, low, Decorated Lady Chapel, and 
a tall pointed choir gable, a prominent transept, and, at the 

1 See Stephens, Rev. W. R. W., Memorials of the South Saxon See and 
Cathedral Cli. of C, photographs, 8°, London, 1876. — Willis, Rev. Prof., Arch. 
Hist, of C. Cathedral, 4°, Chichester, 1861 (Arch. Institute of Grt. B., 22). 



120 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

west end, a detached bell-tower, unique in England, bulky, 
pale-gray, and crumbling. 

The interior is small, but has a good effect of length, and is 
built throughout of pale-buff stone, some parts of which are 
whitewashed. There is now a moderate amount of colored 
glass, all of which is new since 1842, and much since 1875, 
as also are a handsome pulpit, a small but rich reredos, and a 
fine pavement of enamelled tiles. A more interesting feature 
is, perhaps, the central spire supported on new massive piers, 
replacing those of Norman construction that, after the old 
spire fell directly on the floor beneath, were found to be mere 
shells of stone enclosing a wretched core of rubble, not unlike 
a similar piece of work found in 1883 at Peterborough (p. 152). 
Another feature, of which there are few examples in England, 
is the arrangement of the nave with two aisles on each side. 
As already stated, the Lady Chapel is unusually long and 
narrow. It is vaulted, and is lighted at the end and on both 
sides by traceried windows filled with richly colored glass, 
forming part of a restoration made within the last few years. 
The cloisters have three aisles, with rounded, timber roofs, and 
good although worn tracery. Near by is the bishop's palace, 
some parts of which are extremely old. 

The see was, during a great portion of the Saxon period, at 
Selsey, a far less convenient and healthy place, and was trans- 
lated to Chichester in 1057. Thirteen years later a Norman 
bishop was consecrated, whose successor, Roger, finished a 
cathedral in 1108, but, says Storer, as usual with churches 
of that age, it was destroyed by fire, — in May, 1114. It has 
consequently been inferred that these early buildings were of 
wood, then very plenty ; but the wooden roofs used by the 
Gothic builders, that have caused bad fires even in the present 
century, afford an explanation of what would be probable in 
a less careful age. Again, in 1185, or 1187, a part, at least, 
of the cathedral and much of the city were consumed. These 
two disasters have been a cause of some uncertainty about the 
date of interesting Norman work that forms the inside of the 
choir as far up as the clerestory. Few changes in the building 
were occasioned by the Reformation, but during the Civil War, 



WINCHESTER. 121 

when Chichester was loyal, there was a disastrous siege, in 
which it received damages not yet repaired. 

Winchester : stands upon a plain and a gently sloping hill- 
side. It is a very ancient place and was important in the 
British and Roman periods, and continued to be in the Middle 
Ages, but in the time of Queen Elizabeth had become decayed. 
Its present aspect is that of a busy rural city, with few objects 
that suggest antiquity. The cross, an open-work pinnacle, 
dark-gray in color, and in good order, dates, perhaps, from 
the reign of Henry VI. 

The Cathedral stands upon low ground, and for this reason 
and a lack of lofty towers or parts, its vast proportions are, 
at first, not fully realized. It is nearly surrounded by a green 
churchyard through which it is approached by a noble avenue 
of trees extending towards the northwest corner. The west 
front, bold but not lofty, is, like the other parts of the exterior, 
venerably gray. There are no towers, and the three doorways 
are remarkable for their small size ; those at the sides seem 
to be more fitted for a private building, and are in striking 
contrast with the mighty western portals built at about the 
same time in France. But the repose and beauty of the fresh 
green English close are also very different from the bare rough 
ground or pavement of the street or place that would form a 
French approach. Although the front has simple outlines and 
no towers or statuary, it shows how much elegance and even 
richness can be had by the skilful use of a few buttresses, and 
the design of one great window, when the architect is a master 
of geometry and of the late Pointed style. 

The interior, one of the longest built in the Middle Ages, is 
throughout of very pale-brown or buff stone, relieved in the 
choir by many emblazoned bosses in the vaulting. Its general 
effect is that of an ancient church kept in admirable order but 
not restored, and in which there are several remarkable features 

1 See Picturesque Memorials of Winchester, 18 plates, 4°, W., 1830. — 
Milner, J. (D.D.), Historical Account of W. Cath., 12°, W. 1840. Do. of W. 
College, 12°, W., n. d. Do. of St. Cross, do., do: Also his History, etc., 2 v. 4°, 
1798. — Carter, 0. B., The Ancient Painted Glass of W. Cath., 29 plates, 4°, 
London, 1845. 



122 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

of construction or design. The nave impresses one by its great 
Length and massiveness combined with elegance. While really 
Norman it is an example of acutely arched, majestic Perpen- 
dicular, a robing of which was placed on the original piers and 
clerestory walls between L845 and L486. They bear a vaulting 
made peculiar by the arrangement of the groins that are raised 
along the sides and fitted to the windows of the clerestory, the 
effect of combined strength and elegance in which is increased 
by very bold ribs in the vaults and tracery of tho windows. 
Some relief in color, it may be added, is given by old painted 
-Mass that (ills the large window at the west end already men- 
tioned. 

In great contrast with the nave, and still more with claborato 
work in the choir, are (be rude, ponderous, Norman arches and 
wooden roof (1070-1107) thai remain in the transept. Tho 
choir is unusually long and subdivided. Services arc chiefly 
held in a part that formed the old choir of the monks, and is 
enclosed by stalls and elevated several steps. It reaches, as 
is unusual in England, beneath the central tower to the west 
side of tho transept. East of this are, successively, the pres- 
bj bery for the clergy, with two bays, the sanctuary for the altar, 
with one bay (making three bays (lanked by a stone screen of 
open tracery glazed with plate-glass), and then a lofty and 
elaborate solid screen of whitish stone crossing the choir and 
containing many niches in which there formerly were statues. 
Beyond this are a capitular chapel, of one bay, the less elevated 
so-called chantry aisles, with three bays, and the two bays of 
the Lady Chapel. The styles are chiefly early Pointed (1189- 
1 -0 ' ) and Perpendicular, and the color pale-buff relieved by 
richly painted bosses in the main vaulting (that is of wood), 
and by fragments of the ancient glass in the clerestory and 
eastern chapels. A very open, lofty, and elaborate oak screen, 
put up in L875, separates the nave from tbi* service-choir and 
its stalls erected about 1296, also of oak, but that has grown 
almost black with age. They are thought to be the finest of 
their date and style in England. 

No parts of the interior are, however, more remarkable than 
tho astonishingly rich white stone chantries of tho bishops. 



WINCHESTER. 123 

On the south side of the nave are those of Edington (1345-66) 
and Wykham (1367-1404) ; along, the chantry aisles those of 
Beaufort (1406-47) and Waynflete (1447-86); and on the 
outer sides of the capitular chapel those of Fox (1509-28) at 
the south, and Gardiner (1531-55) at the north. They show 
the most refined taste in England during two centuries applied 
to the Pointed style and producing work that compares well 
with the Gothic and Renaissance flourishing at the same time 
in France and Italy ; they also show a mastery of geometry 
suggestive of an age when men made mathematics help them 
to discover continents, as well as to beautify the House of God. 
These chantries are small, narrow chapels placed between two 
piers, endowed for masses to be said for persons of whom they 
are memorials. The sides have glazed or closed tracery below, 
and lofty open arches above it bearing tracery, that, in the 
later works, is wonderfully rich and intricate, and crowned 
by numerous crocketed pinnacles. Originally they were orna- 
mented with bright gilding and fine color, traces of which still 
remain. 

The other monuments are very interesting. One of them, in 
the south transept, is new, in memory of Bishop Wilberforce, 
and is an example of the arts to-day well worthy of a place 
near the great mediaeval masterpieces. It is large, canopied, 
and made of stone like that of Caen, except the pillars, that 
are of dark marble. Figures of angels in the interior bear a 
tablet of red marble that sustains a recumbent figure of the 
bishop. Near it is a plain black slab in memory of quaint old 
Isaac Walton, whose " Lives " and " Angler " have so often 
been reprinted during the last two centuries. The font, of 
black marble curiously carved, should be observed. It has 
been called the " crux antiquariorum" for its age and story are 
a puzzle. Britton, who has given a full description of it, 
thought it " of Walkelyn's time," the bishop from 1070 to 
1097, and he is probably correct. In the northeastern chapel 
is an antique-shaped arm-chair, in which Queen Mary sat when 
she was married to Philip II. It is an easy chair. 

The crypt is chiefly Norman, of the same age as the transept, 
and shows the French round apse of the choir, and of the Lady 



124 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

Chapel, now beneath the chantry aisles, together with plain 
and massive work that has a sombre and impressive effect. 

William of Wykeharn, illustrious for piety and genius, not 
only built important parts of his cathedral, still a glory and 
a joy, and his New College, that grand work at Oxford, but 
also founded at Winchester (1387-93) another college, " as a 
nursery " for the former ; for he knew the value of a learned, 
pious, and cultivated ministry. The venerable and impressive 
buildings here surround two courts, and are entered beneath 
a noble arch. There is a chapel with four fine windows on 
each side, and one at the end, thought to be the richest in 
all England. The fan-traceried (and now gilded) ceiling was 
designed, they say, by the great bishop. There are also clois- 
ters (132 feet square), built early in the fifteenth century, 
with arched roofs made of Spanish chestnut. In the centre 
is a chapel dating from 1430, used as a library since 1627, 
and of late restored. Another indispensable part of an old 
English college is the Hall, here 63 feet long, 33 feet wide, 
and having a richly ornamented ceiling. At the Reformation 
the institution narrowly escaped a dissolution, as was again 
the case in the Civil War ; but happily, it is still flourishing 
at the ripe age of five centuries, the alma mater of many 
bishops, noted clergymen, and men of letters. 

Another institution cherished by the Church, and even older 
than the college, is established only about a mile from the 
cathedral, and should be mentioned in connection with it. 
The Hospital of St. Cross was founded by a brother of King 
Stephen, Bishop De Blois, " between the years 1132 and 1136, 
for the subsistence of thirteen resident poor men, in every nec- 
essary of life, and for affording one ample meal in each day 
to one hundred other indigent out-boarders," and also for the 
support of twenty-six assistants. It was, indeed, a mediasval 
"Old Men's Home," — no new invention, — and on a scale 
that makes some modern institutions appear very humble, 
especially in buildings, for those of St. Cross are noble. The 
distribution of beverages was also on a» great scale, for " each 
poor man " had daily " a gallon and a half of good small beer." 
A delightful walk across green meadows, amid scenery of per- 



SALISBURY. 125 

feet English beauty, takes one to the Hospital. It is a quad- 
rangle of low gray buildings, simple but very picturesque, with 
a beautiful mantle of native ivy, to which a fig-tree has been 
added and trained over the porch of the hall. An old man in 
a long black gown, perhaps, as once the writer found him, 
eighty-seven years old, will show the place ; and ale in a horn, 
and white bread on a wooden plate will be served at the lodge- 
door, as they have been for eight hundred years to wayfarers. 
In the centre of the old and curious eating-hall is a hearth of 
bricks, on which a charcoal fire was built " six times a year," 
he told us, " that the old men might assemble and enjoy them- 
selves an afternoon." The church shows the prominence of 
religious character in these old institutions, for it is a noble 
cruciform edifice, measuring 150 feet by 120 feet, built chiefly 
by De Blois. The style is good and massive Norman, and the 
color inside pale-buff, excepting in the choir and central tower, 
where there is recent colored painting, that may be according 
to old precedents, but that might be much better. On each 
side of the choir there is an oblong chapel of clean stone, 
and in the northern transept some rich work, all of which is 
Norman. 

Salisbury 1 is a quiet, rural city, built on level ground, from 
which at various distances, low, broad hills rise, and is a pleas- 
ant centre from which several excursions can be made. Within 
an easy drive is Stonehenge (page 16), one of the oldest monu- 
ments in England. Two miles north is forsaken but still well- 
known Old Sarum, an important medieval place, where the 
old Sees of Wiltshire, Wilton, Sherborn, and Ramsbury were 
gathered in 1078, and whence the bishops moved to Salisbury 
about 1217. The site is a large hill, now marked by a few trees 



1 See History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Salisbury, etc., 8°, 
London, 1719, 1723, 1728. — A Description, etc., 4°, 1774. — Do. also of the Chapels, 
Inscriptions, etc., 4°, Salisbury, 1787. — Dodsworth, Wm., An historical account 
of the Episcopal See and Cathedral Church of Sarum or Salisbury, royal 4°, 
Salisbury, 1814. — Hall, Rev. P., Picturesque Memorials of Salisbury, and Old 
and New Sarum, 4°, Salisbury, 1834. — Milner, J. (D.D.), A Dissertation on 
the modern style of altering ancient cathedrals as exemplified at Salisbury, 4°, 
London, 1798. 



126 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

and curious earthworks on the summit. In other directions 
are large, noble residences, — Wilton House (James I.'s time), 
famed for its marbles; Longleat (1567-79), a grand Eliza- 
bethan mansion; Wardour Castle (1770-76), in modern style, 
with a valuable gallery of paintings, and Longford, a peculiar 
castle (1591), triangular in form, with a round tower placed 
at each angle. The chief interest of Salisbury is, however, con- 
centrated around the close and its cathedral. 

The Cathedral, built almost entirely between 1220 and 1258, 
is not only the chief work in Early English, but also one of the 
few great mediaeval churches built in one design and style. It 
has great length, two transepts, no west towers, and the most 
lofty spire in England. The exterior is venerably gray, un- 
marred by restorations, and shown admirably from the north 
and west across green lawns that stretch in those directions, 
and are studded by old vigorous trees. Throughout the edi- 
fice buff Chilmark freestone, that breaks easily, is used. A 
deep gray given it by long exposure is made still more sombre 
by a profusion of lichens. While ornament is fairly distributed 
over all parts, it is most abundant on the west front, which, 
although it has small portals and has not the effect obtained 
by towers, is made rich and impressive by sculpture. Its archi- 
tectural work has been restored, but moderately ; the statuary, 
placed in four rows of canopied niches across the" front, except 
where windows intervene, shows possibly a dozen of the ancient 
figures, carefully repaired. The numerous other statues are 
new, and fresh light-brown in contrast with the iron-gray walls. 
Christ seated in Judgment occupies the highest niche in the 
great gable ; over the main door are saints, — George, Margaret, 
Barbara, Bartholomew, and Catharine of Alexandria. Immense 
groups, like those on some of the French cathedrals, are lacking, 
yet ranks of the great confessors of the faith stand here arrayed, 
like the advancing leaders of the church militant, to meet and 
welcome coming worshippers. 

The interior has undergone great changes for the better in 
the last five and twenty years. When the writer first saw it, it 
looked bare and cold, and was made almost dismal by a coat of 
dingy, monotonous whitewash given it in the dark ages, a hun- 



Ill If J 




SALISBURY. 127 

dred years ago, when light was sought by such devices. At 
that period England had grown stupid, cold, and wicked. She 
overworked her children, bought slaves, and tried to tax Amer- 
ica. Then judgments were sent on her, and among them was a 
man named James Wyatt. He smashed tombs and altars, flung 
the rich old glass by cart-loads into the town ditch, bedaubed the 
walls with his mean monochrome, and in other ways committed 
outrages upon this glorious church. He also tried his hand at 
Hereford and elsewhere. An age with men of living faith is 
now removing traces of his presence, and in five visits in as 
many years, the writer has enjoyed and watched the transfor- 
mation they have wrought throughout the whole interior, from 
the Lady Chapel to the western front and great north porch. 

The great north porch, an English feature, near the western 
front, is here one of the best in England. It is a deep, high, 
gabled archway, bordered inside by arcades of tracery, all of 
which had become much decayed, but have just been restored, 
and forms an approach to a large portal opening to the nave. 
The whole interior at once gives an impression of space and 
lightness, of the wide sweep of its arches, the smallness of its 
piers, and the great area of the windows, all in most marked 
contrast with the features of the preceding Norman style. This 
reaction in design, already mentioned (page 100), is suggestive 
of the striking change that has at times occurred in other mat- 
ters, as for instance, in the seventeenth century in England, and 
in the appreciation of the mediseval arts during our age, com- 
pared with the utter lack of it a century ago. In place of the 
dead coldness then, the ancient love of truth and color is revived. 
The effect of age has, indeed, almost disappeared, but an in- 
terior much like what it was in the thirteenth century is now 
shown, as if preserved with unfaded freshness. In the nave, the 
arches, the walls of the aisles, and the ribs of the vaulting, are 
pale gray ; the faces of the groins are white ; the main pillars 
are dark, varied, gray, clean stone ; and the slender Early Eng- 
lish shafts, shown through the whole triforium, are very dark 
green Purbeck marble. There is colored glass now at the 
west end only, for the ravages of Wyatt have left ugly com- 
mon glass elsewhere. The restoration of the nave has been 



128 SOUTHERN CATHEDEALS. 

accomplished in about six years, from 1878 to 1883 ; that of the 
choir was half a dozen years earlier, and of the chapter-house, 
between 1855 and 18G0. Among other features it will be no- 
ticed that the ends of the main or western transept correspond 
in their design, as they very rarely do, and that the southern 
end has simple colored glass (1881). At the northeastern 
pier of the great central tower is a new and very handsome 
pulpit of pale drab stone with Purbeck shafts. The Rood- 
screen (at the west end of the choir) is a new one, made of 
metal richly wrought and gilded, and is very open and superb. 
In the choir there is the same effect of airiness and lightness 
that gives character to the nave, but there is much more color, 
that has been recently applied according to designs or sugges- 
tions in the old work, thus giving prominence to this important 
portion of the edifice, as well as to the various features of the 
design. Upon the mouldings of the arches in the main arcade 
and the triforium, and on the ribs of the main vault, are red 
and bluish green, while gilding emphasizes the bosses of the 
latter and the capitals of the pillars in the clerestory. In con- 
trast, the faces of the vaulting are white, relieved by many 
round medallions with pale blue grounds, on which are painted 
figures ; and some of the spandrels of the main arcade are filled 
with scroll-work in pale colors. Set in this framing are the in- 
tenser hues of new stained glass, brightening all the lower east- 
ern windows ; and adding to the polychrome is that of a rich and 
beautiful pavement, which shows what can be done with modern 
English tiles, that help, it may be said, to distinguish the choir 
from the nave, which is paved with smoothed dark and whitish 
stones laid in no set pattern. The Lady Chapel and the ad- 
jacent parts have a very light and rich effect, although there 
the amount of color is not great. Pale -buff stones form the 
walls, the seams in which, as well as in the vaults, are painted 
red, and the mouldings on the latter dark, dull-red and green, 
offset by scroll-work where they intersect. A great number of 
slender polished Purbeck shafts give their usual strong con- 
trast of color, and also of form, compared with the rude, heavy 
Norman piers common only a short time before they were 
designed. 



SALISBURY. 129 

The cloisters (1263-84), unusually large and good, have not 
been extensively restored, and were not hurt by Wyatt, so that 
they retain the venerable aspect given them by their great age, 
with something of the beauty of their youth. The chapter-house, 
of the same date, is octagonal and is one of the largest in the coun- 
try. Its vaulting is concentrated and supported by a central clus- 
ter of very slender shafts of polished Purbeck marble. Reaction 
from the Norman massiveness is here perhaps too great, and 
there is thought to be a lack of boldness. Polychrome is here 
again prominent in the decoration, for the white faces of the 
groins are relieved by red lines in the seams between the stones, 
and by colored stripes and gilding in the ribs, by gilding on the 
foliated bosses, and by radiating painted scrolls. In the large 
four-light windows is tracery also painted with* designs in color, 
and stained glass increases the richness, as also do the hues of 
glazed tiles that form the pavement. An elaborately painted 
arcade around the lower portion of the wall is, however, one of 
the chief features. Along its spandrels are primitive designs cut 
in relief, and recolored and regilded about 1860, when the paint 
seems to have been laid on too thick, or else it has been affected 
by dampness in the walls, from which it is now peeling. The 
subjects of the work form a curious series of scenes in Bible 
history, from the Creation to the overthrow of Pharaoh and the 
giving of the Law by God to Moses ; a style of work unusual in 
England, and while small and rude compared with similar com- 
positions in France and Italy, yet of great interest. For a long 
time these sculptures were left neglected and much broken, and 
the building itself was in a dangerous condition before the re- 
storation that was done in memory of Bishop Denison, under 
the charge of Mr. Clutton. 

The best view of the exterior, and one of the most charming 
of all views of a mediaeval cathedral, is from the northeast, 
where the unusual picturesqueness of its outlines can be fully 
seen. Both of the transepts, the Lady Chapel, the north porch, 
and, over all, the graceful spire four hundred feet in height — 
a worthy mate to the great masterpiece at Chartres — are 
grouped as Gothic art has never elsewhere united its impres- 
sive dignity and beauty. The grander size and wonderful 

9 



130 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

elaboration at Milan and at Cologne have their pre-eminence, 
and so have the unrivalled front at Reims, the spire in " Mech- 
lin lace " at Antwerp, and that " miracle " in dark red stone 
at Strasbourg. Each in its own peculiar glory is unrivalled, 
and so, also, is this view of Salisbury Cathedral ; it shows us 
one of the wide world's treasures, one of the triumphs of 
mediaeval art and piety. 

Bristol is an irregular and not excessively clean city, built 
in a valley and upon both banks of the Avon, and although it 
is inland, the river makes it chiefly noted as the largest and 
busiest port in the west of England. 

The Cathedral stands on a hill, beside a little park called the 
College Green, and although the see it represents dates only 
from 1542, parts of the edifice are very early. Originally it 
was the church of an Augustinian monastery, and is now by 
preservation or rebuilding almost complete, showing, to an 
unusual extent, examples of the work of many periods and 
also several peculiar features. The oldest of the more impor- 
tant parts remaining is the chapter-house (1142-1170), nearly a 
double square in area, with two bays of vaulting that are 
crossed by heavy ribs with zigzag ornaments. On the sides 
are two tiers of arcades, above which are cut elaborate inter- 
laced bands or mouldings. It is, altogether, one of the best 
large examples of late Norman work in England, and its effect 
is uncommonly impressive. A portion of the cloister that 
remains has a "lean-to" roof of wood, and large flying but- 
tresses like timbers. 

The next oldest portion of the building is the Lady Chapel 
(1196-1215), of an oblong shape, placed, as it seldom is in 
England, on the north side of the choir, which is Decorated and 
about a century later. Although the nave is in the same style 
and design, it was not built until between 1867 and 1878. 
There is no clerestory or triforium. The vaultings spring 
directly from the main arcade of clustered pillars, many of 
which are dark lias; and the aisle on each side is nearly as 
high as the central part, more in the German than the English 
manner. In the vaulting; of the aisles there is another feature 



BRISTOL. — WELLS. 131 

that is quite unique. A bridge or horizontal buttress runs 
across at the top of each pier and is supported by a pointed 
arch with open spandrels, — thus forming a brace against the 
thrust of the main vault. There are some very rich sedilia on 
the south side of the choir close to the altar, and in several 
places, a considerable number of good monuments. Eight of 
these latter are, perhaps, unique in design. Square recesses 
in the walls are bordered by rich mouldings, turned to form a 
three-sided head from which large foliated cusps extend upon 
the wall, and smaller open ones point down in bold relief 
against the shade of the recess. Along the bottom lies the 
figure of the person commemorated. 

A new nave of a cathedral in the Pointed style is a novelty ; 
certainly it is in England. This at Bristol, begun in 1867, 
well advanced in 1871, and completed in 1878, is, as already 
stated, a continuation of the design in the choir, and was built 
under the direction of Mr. G. S. Street. Buff stone, dark lias 
for shafts on the piers, and traceried windows of remarkable 
height in the aisles (as is the case in the choir), are prominent 
characteristics. Although the west front, the only new one in 
the country except that at St. Albans, still lacks its proposed 
two towers, it already shows a very large, low, central portal, 
and what is very rare, especially in such a place in England, 
a rose-window, an excellent one filled with colored glass. Ex- 
ternally the nave has a brownish-yellow general color, contrast- 
ing it with the older parts, that are now dark gray, varied by 
an intermixture of dingy red sandstone. 

Wells 1 is a small city in a pleasant region. The Cathedral 
is not only by far the most important object in it, but, with 
many antique buildings near by, makes a distinguished part of 
one of the most charming groups of mediseval works in England. 
As often is the case, the existing church stands upon ground 
where others have been from an early date. Begun probably 

1 See Cockerell, C. E., Iconography of the West Front of Wells Cathedral, 
9 plates, 4°, Oxford, 1851. — Reynolds, II. E., Wells Cathedral, Its Foundation, 
Constitutional History and Statutes, 28 ills., folio, 1881. — See also Specimens 
of Ancient Sculpture, Carter, 1785; and Lectures on Sculpture, etc., J. Flaxman, 
8°, London, 1829 and 1838. 



132 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

about 1214, the nave and transept were finished and conse- 
crated in 1239, the crypt, chapter-house, and central tower 
then successively built, and, in 1326, the choir and Lady 
Chapel completed ; consequently showing throughout the edi- 
fice very early Pointed or Decorated style. West of the third 
outer pier of the aisle in the choir the walls are almost Nor- 
man in their thickness and in the slight projection of the 
buttresses, and the windows, although of moderate size, seem 
to have been enlarged. The eastern part is much lighter and 
more open, in effect and reality. 

The glory — and peculiarity — of the cathedral is its western 
front, finished in 1242. No other in the country is so rich in 
sculpture. Salisbury and Exeter show something like it, but 
not such effects of light and shade, and such a profusion of 
figures. On the Continent few walls surpass it ; for the decora- 
tion is mural, and there is little on the doorways, that are very 
small and cannot be at all compared with the great foreign 
portals. The character and early date of the design make it 
still more remarkable. It was completed " forty-six years 
before the cathedral of Amiens, and thirty-six years before the 
cathedral of Orvieto was begun ; and it seems to be the first 
specimen of such magnificent and varied sculpture, united in 
a series of sacred history, that is to be found in Western 
Europe." l The workmanship is probably English, and of a 
local school, "fraught at once with the gravest and most impor- 
tant interests of religion, history, and archaeology," says a dis- 
tinguished architect. 2 The figures, he adds, " were designed 
to illustrate, in the most ample and striking manner, the great 
and fundamental doctrines of the Christian Faith, its happy 
advent to this country, and its subsequent protection under 
the several dynasties to the date of their execution in 1214." 
There are here, says Britton, one hundred and fifty-three statues 
of life size, or larger, and double that number of smaller figures. 
They are arranged in half a dozen, or more, tiers across the 
front (that is 235 feet wide 3 ). Names have been given by Mr. 

1 Flaxman on Sculpture, in Winkle, i., 84. 

2 Chas. R. Cockerell, Iconography of Wells, ii. 

8 The west front of Amiens is 116 feet, of Notre Dame, 136 feet, of Bourges, 
about 180 feet. 



WELLS. 133 

Cockerell to each of the important figures, but Mr. Planche has 
shown that they cannot be identified. The general design 
appears to have been to place in the lowest tier the early Chris- 
tian missionaries in the country ; then angels holding crowns 
and chanting Glorias ; next, personages of the Bible (those of 
the Old Testament on the south side, and of the New upon the 
north) ; then lords, ecclesiastics, saints, and martyrs, who did 
service for the English Church, and also sovereigns and their 
allies. In the sixth tier the subject is the Resurrection, shown 
in compositions " startling in significance, pathos, and expres- 
sion." The central gable, higher still, is filled with the celes- 
tial hierarchy and the twelve apostles. Christ in majesty, the 
Virgin, and St. John, were placed above and crowned the mar- 
vellous design, a glorious rendering in stone, as Mr. Cockerell 
suggests, of the Te Deum of St. Ambrose. Here, before the 
people, were presented both the Bible and the Church — the 
heroes and the heroines of the Faith, to teach, delight, and bless 
all who approached God's house. The storms of centuries, 
and the wild passion of iconoclasts, have left this almost match- 
less work of mediaeval genius worn or broken, and stripped of 
its rich blue, red, and gold, but recently the whole front has 
been carefully repaired (1871). Long may the sculptured 
stones reveal the piety and love of beauty in the men and period 
that created them, and the perennial majesty of the most an- 
cient and sublime hymn that the church on earth has sung! 
The thirteenth century, here in a country town, conceived and 
carved this broad and lofty front, and made it hardly less a 
poem than the words of the Italian Saint. We may well ask, 
Where have wiser, richer men and times built its superior or 
equal ? 

The exterior of the Cathedral is dark, sober gray, with here 
and there a tint of olive. A long, broad lawn extends towards 
the town from the west front, and forms an admirable ap- 
proach. Upon the right is the extremely ancient-looking, 
moated, Bishop's palace ; at the left, reached by a quaint and 
handsome old stone-covered bridge, is the as curious Vicar's 
Close, in which there is a long and pleasant court. At every 
point around the church there is a picturesque view, and that 



134 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

commanded from the towers is a pleasant one, reaching over 
the old town and peaceful rural land around, to a not distant 
amphitheatre of low hills. 

The interior has throughout a very pale, or almost whitish, 
buff tint. There is a moderate amount of colored glass, the 
chief part of which is in five fine windows in the Lady Chapel. 
One of the features, that immediately arrests attention, is 
formed by heavy extra arches placed beneath the central 
tower, and supporting it by pointed inverted arches that they 
bear. They are perhaps unique, and although curious, do not 
tempt repetition, for they show that sometimes, as Professor 
Willis says, the mediaeval builders " were unskilful, unscien- 
tific persons, who went on packing their buildings mass on 
mass, and when the edifice began to settle, they had recourse 
to all sorts of means and expedients to uphold it." The tower 
was finished to the roof in 1242, and completed between 1318 
and 1321. In 1337-1338, when it had begun to settle badly, 
these arches were inserted, and they have since kept it secure. 
Throughout the nave and transept the capitals are remarkable 
for bold and lavish carving, forming a marked feature there, as 
also does the triforium, which is unglazed and open, by tall 
lancets to the roof above the aisles. 

The choir is a very beautiful example of Decorated. It has a 
pale-buff color, relieved by bright gold on the bosses in the 
vaulting, and dark, polished marble shafts supporting richly 
sculptured canopies (of light stone) ranged above the stalls. 
In place of a triforium are traceries of elegant design in bold 
relief. The Lady Chapel and the adjoining retro-choir (1326) 
have even greater beauty. One of their peculiarities is the in- 
terlacing of the ribs in an unusually intricate vaulting, in which 
the mouldings are set off by blue and red lines, and the bosses 
by rich gilding on grounds of these colors. The carving in 
the capitals and bosses is also remarkable. 

The chapter-house is still another peculiarity of this Cathe- 
dral. It occupies a second story, and is approached by a quaint 
and stately staircase, for it is placed on a crypt built above 
ground. The floor is octagonal, and in the centre stands a 
pillar supporting the vaulting. On the lower portion of the 



BATH. 135 

walls is a rich canopied arcade, above which are large windows 
filled with geometrical tracery. The crypt is damp, although 
the sunshine enters it and lights its ponderous walls and vaults, 
that look as if they could endure until the day of doom. Be- 
sides these rare features, there are brown-gray and extensive 
cloisters that are now somewhat broken, but still interesting. 

This admirable cathedral is very freely shown, and the 
writer is glad to acknowledge the pleasure he has had while 
examining every part of it, from the crypt to the top of the 
central tower. 

Bath, one of the best known of all the English Spas, or 
watering places, is very ancient, but its pervading aspect is 
that of a large and handsome modern city, with neat streets, 
fine shops, and solid private buildings that are often imposing. 
For a long time it was much resorted to, and it shows that it 
was relatively greater and more fashionable in the times of 
George III. and George IV., although it has maintained the 
reputation that it then secured. The assembly-rooms and 
large pump-room, both in semi-classic style, are on a great 
scale. Their classicism extends to an inscription over the 
main door of the latter, " API2TON MEN 'TAnP," that 
does not seem particularly happy to a novice who is drinking 
the warm water of the spring. One of the largest monuments 
of social life in Bath, or England, of a hundred years ago, is 
an extensive Circus, or a stately circle of three-storied houses 
showing the chief classic orders, coupled pillars, and a bold 
entablature, all well designed and built of stone, that is now 
blackened or somewhat disintegrated. The city is large, solid, 
and sedate rather than cheerful, and is unusually gray-looking 
from the material used. Without the ever-present smut it 
would be elegant in an old-fashioned way, and more attractive, 
for it stands upon a long high slope towards the south that 
gives it an agreeable exposure. 

In the lower portion of the city, and environed by it, is the 
cruciform Abbey Church, that dates from 1500, and was almost 
entirely the work of Bishop King, carried out in late Perpen- 
dicular. The monastery was suppressed in 1539, and during 



136 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

the next thirty years the church was seriously injured. It has 
recently, however, been thoroughly repaired, without depriving 
it of the effect of age, and the upper parts of the exterior re- 
main an earthy gray, while the lower parts show an almost uni- 
form expanse of black. Like many of the minor western fronts 
in England, this one has no towers and only closes in the nave 
and aisles, thus presenting two low parts and a high centre, at 
each corner of which is a buttress. On the face of both of the 
latter is a curious decoration, a " Jacob's Ladder," with sub- 
stantial rounds bearing numerous ascending angels carved in 
a stone now become worn and crumbling. Other damaged 
figures fill the gable. 

The interior — throughout of a pale whitish-gray color, on 
which here and there a stain appears — is characterized by 
height, the smallness of the transept, the width of the aisles, 
the great size of the four end windows, the elaborate fan 
traceries in the ceilings of the choir, and the great number 
of small mural monuments and tablets. Of the latter, says 
Mr. Britton (p. 66), there were in his time " at least 450," 
thought to be the largest number in any edifice in the country. 
Not less notable is the elliptical ceiling of the nave, with a span 
of thirty feet nine inches and a rise of only three feet, that, 
says Carter, " may be justly deemed a master-piece of ma- 
sonry." The tracery covering it is, however, the only solid 
stone work. Pews, with which the nave is filled, give it, to 
some extent, the appearance of a large parish church, but a 
peculiar aspect and consequent name belong to the church, for, 
from the number and great area of the windows, and general 
lightness, it has been styled " The Lantern of England." Not- 
withstanding the opportunities, there is not much colored glass. 
In the western window, thought from its design to be suggestive 
of the Trinity, is a small amount, and the clerestory has a little 
that is tinted. In the great window nearly filling the south 
end of the transept there is some that is old and good, although 
not very bright. At the east end is a huge window, similar in 
size, 50 feet high and 20 feet wide, noticeable for its square 
head (unusual for a window of these dimensions), and for being 
one of the largest containing ancient colored glass in England. 



EXETER. 137 

Mr. Britton has mentioned (p. 53) some curious particulars 
about the measurements of this edifice. Both the nave (211 
by 35 feet) and the transept (120 by 20 feet), he says, have 
the proportions of Noah's Ark, six times as long as wide ; the 
whole church (225 by 80 feet) occupies about the area of Sol- 
omon's Temple, a triple square ; and the choir, with an area 
of two squares and a half, has that given by Moses to the 
Tabernacle. 

The Episcopal see was transferred from Wells to Bath 
about 1091 or 1092, and the name of " Bath and Wells " given 
it about 1135, since which date it has retained this title, 
except from 1192 to 1242, when it was styled " of Bath and 
Glastonbury." 

Exeter is a large city, standing in a pleasant, moderately 
hilly region. It has been successively inhabited by Britons, Ro- 
mans, Saxons, Danes, and Normans, and, since these last were 
a separate people, by substantial west-country English. Its pre- 
vailing aspect is suggestive of the recent generations of the 
latter. There are some new buildings that are picturesque, 
but the streets chiefly show the plain, or to be more correct, 
the ugly style of English domestic architecture that existed 
from fifty to a hundred years ago. 

The Cathedral, although not a small one, is comparatively 
low, and is made to seem more so from the effect of its posi- 
tion ; for the chief open ground adjoining, a grassy area of 
moderate size on which large trees are scattered, slopes to- 
wards its northern side. Two square Norman towers, placed 
perhaps uniquely midway of the length, give it the cross shape, 
and form the transept. Almost as great a rarity is the low 
western front marked by an imposing screen with statuary, 
three small doors, a wide elaborate window, and a broad gable. 
The screen, dating from the fourteenth century, and a worthy 
companion for the sculptured marvel at Wells, has three tiers 
of statues, richly canopied. In the first row are angels, in the 
next are knights and kings, and in the third are saints, apos- 
tles, and the great heroes of the Bible. Throughout the exterior 
the color is a varied gray, where a dull black has not over* 



138 SOUTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

spread the surface, as it has done more perhaps, than on any- 
other large English church, with the possible exception of 
Westminster Abbey. 

The interior is remarkable for its main vaulting, uniform 
throughout, for its rich details, and for the thorough restora- 
tion or redecoration, lately finished at a cost of £ 50,000, and 
making a change that has been great and gratifying. When 
the writer first saw the interior it was nearly covered by a coat 
of dirty whitewash, and the stalls and other minor parts were 
poor. The dirt and meanness, not the dignity, of years were 
there ; and much of the mediaeval beauty was obscured, or was 
destroyed. Now reverent study, wealth, and skill, have done a 
work particularly, characteristic of our times, a large example 
of which has been first described upon these pages in the ac- 
count of Salisbury. Things that disfigured have been banished, 
and the grace of modern art in ancient styles has been brought 
in by lavish hands, with the spirit of the mediaeval builders, 
who, we should remember, did not hesitate to make still 
greater transformations. 

The interior, like the exterior, is chiefly Decorated of the 
fourteenth century. Its unbroken vault, a rarity, is low, — too 
low for justice to its excellence, but otherwise the general effect 
is admirable. Color, more varied than is usual in England, is 
chiefly that of the stones employed. Clustered pillars compos- 
ing the piers, both in the choir and nave, are of unpolished 
Purbeck, a dark earthy brown, contrasted with a lighter tint 
upon the walls. In the nave, the faces of the groins are simi- 
lar in color, and are contrasted strongly with ribs that are 
much lighter. The vaulted ceiling of the transept is unusually 
dark, but in the choir the ground is smooth and buff, the ribs 
are decorated with pale blue, bright red, and gold, and the 
large bosses have rich gilding heightened by red in the under- 
cutting. Most of the windows in the nave now have some 
colored glass ; the western windows are filled with it. At the 
entrance to the choir is a rood-screen with Purbeck shafts un- 
polished, panels with dark, ancient painting, and above, pale, 
whitish stone that is well carved. 

TJie choir, containing the most magnificent new work, has 



EXETER. 139 

coloring similar to that already mentioned, but increased in 
amount by stained glass, filling all the windows at the east end 
and parts of those elsewhere. Rich new tiles, and marbles now 
form the pavement. The old, ordinary stalls have been replaced 
by new, of oak, elaborate and beautiful, with lofty canopies borne 
upon slender pillars. Behind them, and along the four eastern 
bays, is a tall open-traceried screen made of a light-colored 
stone. At one side is the Bishop's throne, an old work now 
black from age, fifty-three feet in height, and one of the most 
stately in the country, superb with carving that includes a great 
deal of vine-work in high relief. Among the new objects is the 
pulpit of exquisite veined alabaster, standing on a reddish mar- 
ble base, and also the reredos of the same material, studded 
with gem-like stones and varied by high reliefs cut in white 
marble. At the eastern end the chapels contain several monu- 
ments that bear recumbent figures, richly canopied, all now re- 
stored and gorgeous in red, blue, and gold. Besides these rich 
works, the Lady Chapel has a reredos with nine painted panels, 
in which there are figures on gold grounds, and over which are 
traceried gables. The corner chapels, each of one bay, have 
groins with light-blue grounds, on which are small white cres- 
cents and gilt stars, somewhat in the French style. 

Exeter with its restorations, shows an interior, like many an- 
other in England, worth a long journey to see, and proving, by 
its magnificence and the skill it exemplifies, that ancient and 
modern English ecclesiastical art are worthy of each other. 



THE MIDLAND CATHEDEALS. 

St. Paul's, 1 London, the largest and most modern of the 
English Cathedrals, and the only one in Roman style, of which 

1 See Dugdale, Sir Win., Knt. The History of St. Paul's Cathedral, from 
its first Foundation until these times, etc., folio, London, 1658. Second ed., pub- 
lished by Dr. E. Maynard, London, 1716. Also by Henry Ellis, 69 plates, Lon- 
don, 1818. 

See, also, Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London, by Britton and 
Pcgin, 2d ed., by W. H. Leeds (vol. i.), 2 vols. 8°, London, 1838. — Milman, H. H. 
(D. D.), Annals of St. Paul's Cathedral, 8°, London, 1868. Also (substantially) 



140 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

it also is one of the most magnificent examples, was erected 
under the supervision of one architect, one master mason, and 
one bishop, who lived to see it built, between 1675 and 1710. 
It is the grand successor to one of the largest mediaeval 
churches, burned in 166G, which has not been surpassed in 
great length, 690 feet, and the height of the spire, 520 or 534 
feet, and which occupied about the site of the existing structure, 
but extended farther towards the west, east, and north. 1 The 
nave of old St. Paul's, built near the end of the eleventh cen- 
tury, was Norman, and is said to have been the most mag- 
nificent example of that style in England; the transept was 
transitional, and finished about 1200 ; and the choir, that dated 
from twenty to forty years later, was Early English. A long 
wall enclosed not only the cathedral, chapter-house, and clois- 
ters, but also the bishop's palace, and the churchyard, in which 
stood Paul's Cross, with a pulpit, where there was preaching in 
the open air, and where public meetings were held before the 
Civil War. In the Great Fire the church was almost destroyed, 
but efforts were made to repair it, which, however, proved use- 
less, and the ruins were removed. 

After much deliberation by many persons, Sir Christopher 
Wren laid the foundation of the existing building on June 21, 
1675. His trials in various ways were great, and in some 

the same, Handbook by him, published by J. Murray, 1879. The same wood- 
cuts are used in both books. — Longman, Wm., A History of the Three Cathe- 
drals dedicated to St. Paul in London, etc., 8 P , London, 1873. The woodcuts are 
much better than in the above. 

1 The comparative size of the great modern domed churches is as follows in 
English feet : — 





Area, 


Sup- 


Pro- Len. B , dth 
portion, in. 


Dome, 


Diam- 


High, 




sq. ft. 


ports. 


high. 


eter. 


in. 


St. Peter's, Rome, 


227,069 


59,308 


0,261 669 442 


432 


139 


146 


St. Mary's, Florence, 


84,802 


17,030 


0,201 


310 


139 




St. Paul's, London, 


84,025 


14,311 


0,170 500 223 


330 


112 


110 


St. Genevieve, Paris, 


60.287 


9,269 


0,154 


190 


67 




St. Isaacs, St. Petersburg, 


68,845 


18,301 


305 166 




71 


98 


Mediaeval (not domed) 














N. Dame, Paris, 


64,108 


Dome 


, Baths of Caracalla, 


116 


112 




Reims, 


67,475 




Pantheon, Rome, 


143 


142 




Chartres, 


68,260 


St. Sophia, Constantinople, 


201 


115 




Amiens, 


71,208 


St. Mark, Venice, 


190 


75 




Cologne, 


81,464 


Baptistry, Florence, 


110 


86 




Milan, 


107,782 


Mad. 


della Salute, Venice, 


133 


70 








Superga, Turin, 


128 


64 








Invalides, Paris, 


173 


80 






o 

Q 

X 



D 

< 



W 



ST. PAUL'S. 141 

things he erred, yet he proved to be, as a man and an architect, 
one of the noblest produced by his country, and his triumph 
after long struggles was deservedly such as few men secure. 
On February 25, 1723, his wonderfully busy, well-spent life 
closed peacefully at the great age of ninety-one, and with 
splendid ceremonies he was laid beneath the mighty dome 
created by his genius, — "non sibi, sed bono publico," as the 
truth is inscribed upon his work. The long familiar words 
that afterwards were placed on a memorial stone, express the 
thought of him that will occur*to visitors while the grand tem- 
ple stands : " Si monumentum requiris, circumspice." 

The position of St. Paul's is noble and appropriate, and has 
sufficient elevation to give due prominence to the chief church 
of a mighty city, from the very heart of which the vast 
form rises amid the people in their daily life ; not their " fool's 
cap," as Byron styled the dome, but the crown of their glory, 
towering from " busy London's central roar " into the silence 
of the sky, where God often shows how his sunshine can dispel 
the darkest clouds that earth helps to create. 

The exterior shows, throughout, two orders in two lofty 
stories, two high western towers or cupolas, and the immense 
mass of the dome, the drum of which is girded by a colonnade. 
While the upper parts, or those exposed to the west wind, have 
grown bleached-gray, the lower parts and those where smoke 
and dampness can collect have been blackened. No light like 
that of Athens, Italy, and Andalusia, can ever penetrate this 
northern air and make the Portland stone glow with the hues 
that the warmer southern atmosphere imparts to more suscep- 
tible material ; but human industry might substitute with great 
advantage the effect of a thorough washing, for dirt is not 
venerable, and gray, even if cold, has a quiet dignity. There 
also cannot be in such a crowded neighborhood the broad turf 
or views through trees seen in the lesser cities ; but still, room 
has been found for some of these characteristic English beau- 
ties, and for beds of flowers around St. Paul's ; and even if the 
structures required by London's busy life must stand in place 
of the picturesque old buildings that often environ retired 
cathedrals, the activity of the great city is as appropriately 



142 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

represented, and quaintness is not altogether lost amid the 
pressure of 'modern business. A great deal that is curious 
and interesting, especially to lovers of books, will be found 
near by in Ave Maria and Paternoster Lanes. 

The interior shows the effect as well as the reality of space, 
of strong masses, and of broad plain surfaces divided by elabo- 
rate architectural ornament. The style is Roman Renaissance, 
similar to that of St. Peter's, but the coloring is not Italian. 
As the deep blue sky and gorgeous radiance of the sunsets 
that light Rome, and seem to irradiate her art, are never here, 
so the pale, colder air of London colors the interior of her great 
church. It is a whitish-gray throughout, relieved by lavish 
gilding on rich, raised work in the high-arched ceiling, and 
beneath the dome, and by a hardly visible, gigantic frescoing 
on the soaring curve of that majestic vault. Although, espe- 
cially on dull days, the effect is apt to seem too bare and cold, 
the architect did not intend, we are informed, that this should 
be the permanent effect. To form this, several designs for 
polychromatic decoration have been prepared, and much dis- 
cussion has ensued in regard to them and consequent changes 
in the expression of the whole interior. The present mono- 
chrome is hardly disagreeable, and has a certain dignity, that 
might be lessened by a varied coloring which would ob- 
scure the solid stonework now presented in grand repose, a 
trait of the best English character as well as of the native 
styles of architecture. These styles indeed depend on form, 
or light and shade, more than they do on color for effect. Yet 
as the style is not native but Italian, it may justly be consid- 
ered that the features of the latter should be preserved here 
and polychrome be used. At the same time it remains a ques- 
tion whether many hues, especially in small divisions, might 
not impair the simple greatness of the general design. A vest 
of spangles and a coat of many colors may be fine, but some 
persons do not think that they are becoming on a solid English- 
man. The arrangement so effective in St. Peter's might be 
made here with advantage. By it the great arcade in simple 
tints would stand out in clear relief against the slightly darker 
and more richly colored aisles, and with some judicious manage- 



ST. PAUL'S. 143 

ment this interior might be made second only to St. Peter's in 
effect, as it is now in size. About thirty years ago St. Paul's 
had a whited, shabby aspect. Ten years later it was being 
slowly decorated, with gold used somewhat profusely on the 
ceiling, and meanwhile the dome had been repainted and re- 
gilded. But the London atmosphere is trying, and this work 
has faded, and of late has grown dingy. There is not much 
colored glass, and it might be well to consider whether an 
abundance of it would not give a large part of the polychrome 
needed. Two of the pendentives of the dome have large and 
good mosaic figures on gold grounds, and also form a good kind 
of colored decoration. Among other features are two organ- 
cases, the stalls in the choir, and lesser objects, — all richly 
carved in oak, that has grown very dark, and all interesting 
examples of English workmanship. 

The monuments erected in the aisles and chapels of the nave 
and transept form a large collection, — a worthy rival of those 
in San Antonio at Padua and Santa Croce at Florence. In 
St. Paul's the memorials are chiefly those of the military and 
naval heroes of the country during the last hundred years, but 
several of the famous English painters, engineers, and scientific 
men are also commemorated. If many of the designs exhib- 
ited are interesting works of art, some native criticisms on 
others, quoted by an American, might seem to be unamiable. 
White marble is the material chiefly used, now in better con- 
dition than formerly, for of late it has been kept cleaner. Not- 
withstanding the great number of the memorials, it was not 
until 1796, say Pugin and Britton, that " the first public monu- 
ment was erected in this cathedral," — one to " John Howard, 
placed under the southeast recess of the cupola," and forming 
a worthy pioneer of its distinguished companions. On three 
other sides of the dome, in corresponding niches, are monu- 
ments to Dr. Johnson, Sir William Jones, and Sir Joshua Rey- 
nolds (by Flaxman). Appropriately, the two most distinguished 
commanders on the sea and in the field have two of the most 
prominent monuments ; one of them to Lord Nelson and the 
other, in the southwest chapel of the nave, to the Duke of Wel- 
lington, constructed of dark bronze and light marble, and hardly 



144 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

rivalled in magnificence by any other ever raised to a subject 
in Great Britain. 

The vast size and strength of the cathedral can be fully real- 
ized only by an ascent to the ball beneath the cross, and a care- 
ful look at many things that can be seen along the way. At a 
great height above the pavement imposing views of the interior 
are gained from galleries surrounding the inside of the upright 
part of the dome, one of which, called the Whispering Gallery 
because whispers throughout the great circuit can be distinctly 
heard there, is among the popular curiosities of the cathedral. 
Farther up, dark stairs in half circles lead to the space between 
the ceiling and the roof ; for, as often is the case, there are two 
coverings to the dome as well as to other parts, the inner one 
of which is of brick and the outer of timber. Among the in- 
tricacies of the ponderous frame made of the latter are half- 
visible wooden stairs that reach as far as the cupola, above 
which the final ascent is by a tall perpendicular and precarious 
looking ladder, of wood in the lower part and of iron in the 
upper part. Very little can of course be seen by any one who 
has squeezed into the ball ; but the sensation of being in the 
highest attainable place can be felt ; and if the day is windy 
the vibration and humming of the huge metal bubble in the 
air, like the trembling of the larger ball on St. Peters, will 
give a greater sensation. 

The view presented from the Golden Gallery, a broad stone 
walk around the outside of the base of the cupola, is unique, 
extending as it does across the most enormous stretch of human 
habitations to be seen on earth. In ordinary weather no end 
can be discovered to the array of buildings ; for they fill the 
prospect and recede and disappear in the dim air. At times, 
however, when the smoke and fog are gone, the distant hills 
or parks and fields are seen. Few of the streets are clearly 
marked, but the winding river, narrow and turbid, shows itself 
distinctly, and the dusky towers at Westminster, as well as the 
pale turrets of the keep of William I. towards the east, are 
prominent among the many spires or lofty objects that rise in 
great numbers from the mass of lower structures. Only these 
broad characteristics of the view can be noted here, for the 



ST. ALBAN'S. 145 

details and suggestions of the whole view must be omitted ; 
they would form a sketch of the development of England. 

The services, held daily and three times on Sunday are im- 
pressive, and, especially the latter, are very well attended, by a 
congregation of all sorts and conditions of the people, which 
is in itself remarkable. Special services on notable occasions 
are now, perhaps, nowhere else surpassed in stateliness and in- 
terest. One of the most striking of them, held in June, is the 
annual meeting of the Charity Children of London, who, to the 
number of thirty-five hundred, in quaint dresses, are arranged 
on seats that rise in long slopes from the pavement to the 
arches above the aisles. Combined with the effect given by the 
grandeur of the edifice and the immensity and character of 
the congregation, is a very picturesque one of color ; for while 
the boys are chiefly dressed in black, and nearly all the girls, 
with their large capes and aprons, have noticeable white caps, 
the members of each one of the many schools assembled wear a 
ribbon, apron, or rosette of a color peculiar to it, light or dark 
blue, purple, green, or cherry. Besides these, here and there a 
whole school is arrayed in dresses of scarlet or dark purple, or 
other distinctive colors, all of which are well grouped. Fash- 
ions centuries old are also shown, dating from the various 
times when the schools were founded, together with their ban- 
ners raised above their highest seats. 

Impressive as are the great features of the unique scene, its 
spirit and significance are not realized until, with magnificent 
effect, the many thousand persons who fill the floor unite with 
the children in a full cathedral service, and add volume to their 
youthful voices. One can seldom feel such a thrill as is given 
by the simplicity and yet power of the children's singing, with 
its wonderful precision, tone, and freshness, joined with that of 
the great congregation, in a service and a scene produced only 
by ages of English art, benevolence, and steadfast faith. 

At St. Alban's, 1 one of the oldest, largest, and most inter- 
esting churches in the country, has become the seat of one of 

1 See Neale, Jas., The Abbey Church of St. Alban, text and 60 plates, 
atlas folio, London, 1877. — Handbook, published by J. Murray, 1877. — Also, 

10 / 



146 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

the newest bishoprics, placed in this ancient city, and giving 
some measure of due honor to the protomartyr of England. 

Albanus, a Roman soldier under Diocletian, was converted 
to Christianity by a priest whom he protected and enabled to 
escape from persecution. For this conduct he was executed 1 
at Verulamium, and became the first martyr to the faith in 
Britain. On the spot where he received his crown, the King of 
Mercia, Offa II. , in 793, established a Benedictine monastery, 
and in 1077, the Conqueror made Paul of Caen its abbot. 
Paul had been a monk of the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, when the 
great church of St. Stephen was erected. He rebuilt the church 
here, but on an even far grander scale than that at Caen, for 
instead of eleven bays in the nave and choir, he built eighteen. 
The materials used were various, and included a great quantity 
of stones and bricks from ruins of the Roman town adjacent, 
and of course the style was Norman. When the Pointed style 
displaced the round-arched Romanesque in France and England, 
its ascendency appeared here as it did elsewhere. William de 
Trumpyngtone, the twenty-second abbot (1214-1235), pulled 
down the west part of the church and built the four west bays 
in Early English, and at successive later dates the eastern por- 
tions were changed, one of the latest parts being the reredos 
of the high altar in Perpendicular. 

After passing through the usual vicissitudes, the daily life, 
the grandeur, and prosperity, of a great English abbey, that of 
St. Alban's became associated with events of special interest. 
King Richard II. visited it for eight days in 1381, when he sup- 
pressed the insurrection of Jack Straw, who put the Abbey in 
great peril. The wars of York and Lancaster swept over the 
adjacent region, until, on the twenty-third of May, 1455, King 
Henry VI. joined battle at St. Alban's with the Duke of York, 
and suffered a severe defeat from which he went a prisoner to 
London. Six years later, Margaret, his queen, encountered 
here the forces of the House of York led by the Earl of War- 
Nicholson, H. J. B. (D.D.), The Abbey of St. Alban. — Buckler, I. C. and A. C, 
History of the Architecture of. — Chappie, J., Account of the Restoration, to 
1874. 

1 The date is variously given, 305, 284, 293. 



ST. ALBAN'S. 147 

wick, and obtained a victory. A quiet, but most memorable 
event occurred in 1480, when the third printing-press in England 
was established in the Abbey, and the first book it produced 
appeared, — a quarto, entitled the Rhetorica nova Laurencii 
G-uilelmi de Saona, of which only three copies are said to exist. 
Six or seven other books were printed here in the six years en- 
suing, after which work seems to have ceased. On the fifth of 
December, 1539, the forty-first abbot surrendered the Abbey to 
Henry VIII., and subsequently the extensive buildings were 
from time to time demolished, until the great gateway and the 
church alone remained, and these became dilapidated. Within 
the last twenty-five years, however, important and much needed 
restorations have been made. 

St. Alban's stands beside and on a hill, along the crest of 
which the church extends, imposing in simplicity and vast 
dimensions. It is twenty miles (N. W. by N.) from London, 
from which it is reached with ease by three railways, and in 
the summer, by a four-horse coach. Few excursions from the 
city are as interesting ; for besides the great church, and St. 
Michael's with Lord Bacon's tomb, the Roman walls (p. 43), 
are worth visiting. 

The Cathedral is cruciform in ground plan, having a body 
with aisles, a square east end from which a long Lady Chapel 
projects, and a bold transept without aisles. At the centre 
stands a high, plain, massive tower. Twenty years ago the 
roofs were flat and hidden by battlements or parapets ; the 
tower was plastered and dark sombre gray in color ; the Lady 
Chapel, formerly one of the most beautiful in England, was de- 
faced ; a public passage-way was cut through the fine ante- 
chapel ; and the piers beneath the tower were insecure. Two 
lofty and elaborate screens at the ends of the choir were muti- 
lated, and the eastern part of the interior for a hundred feet in 
length was ruinous. Outside, the walls were ragged and showed 
soft gray sandstone, flint work, red bricks with thick seams, and 
patches of dirty plaster. Now the dilapidated western front 
has been rebuilt in Decorated style from designs of Sir E. 
Beckett, at a cost of £20,000, provided by his munificence; a 
long, steep, and dark-slated roof surmounts the nave and gives 



148 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

it a due effect of height ; the ancient surface of the tower is 
shown, with its construction of red Roman bricks (that also, 
here and there, appear both on the inside and outside of the 
edifice) ; the piers are made secure ; the noble chapels are al- 
most restored, and order, beauty, and propriety again prevail. 

The interior, peculiarly imposing from the vast length and 
massive features of the nave, shows, as is always the case, 
several peculiarities that should be noticed. The choir for 
service has the unusual form of a Greek cross, consisting as 
it does of three bays of the nave, the whole of the transept, 
and a portion of the east end of the church. The arches of the 
central tower, the transept, and nine bays of the north side of 
the nave, as well as three upon the south, show the original 
plain, heavy Norman, while four bays on the north side of the 
latter and ten on the south, are elegant, yet massive Early Eng- 
lish. Chestnut wood forms the ceilings of the nave, the central 
tower, and transept, which are flat and covered with square 
panels that some years ago were painted dull, crude colors ; 
now they show medallions and ornaments in the style, or work, 
of the fourteenth century. Contrasted with these designs is 
vaulting in the choir, where the faces of the groins have pat- 
terns of scroll-work, and shields charged with the arms of kings 
and princes, or emblems of many saints. On the ground of all 
these ceilings is a pale sage-green tint, relieving the monochrome 
of the walls which are almost throughout of a pale, buff color. 
In 1862 and later, several mediaeval paintings of Stations of the 
Cross were found beneath the whitewash on the side of the Nor- 
man piers, and four huge figures in the clerestory of the choir. 

A lofty and elaborate reredos or screen (one of the two al- 
ready mentioned), east of the altar, filled with canopies and 
niches, separates the sanctuary of the choir from the Saints' 
chapel, that occupies the east end of the body of the church. 
A fine monument to " Good Duke Humphrey " is on the south 
side, and on the other is a curious " watching-loft," both of 
which works were once very beautiful. In the centre stood the 
shrine erected about 1302 to 1308 (or twenty years later?), in 
memory of St. Alban. It was in Early Decorated style, but so 
thoroughly lost its identity after mutilation, that not until 1872 



PETERBOROUGH. 149 

were its remains found, in nearly two thousand pieces, after 
they had served a long time for walls blocking archways, and 
were then put together with shellac, says Mr. Neale, (p. 31.) 
Purbeck marble forms the body of the work and is faced with 
canopies of clunch, the length being eight feet seven inches, 
the width three feet two inches, and the height eight feet and 
three or four inches, (p. 31.) There are traces of a former 
decoration with red, blue, and gold. Remains have also been 
discovered of the Shrine of St. Amphibalus, the fellow martyr 
of St. Alban, that stood eastward in the ante-chapel, thus giv- 
ing a unique distinction ; for, says Mr. Neale, this " is the only 
English church which has remains of two ancient shrines." 
Both the ante-chapel and the Lady Chapel are restored to good 
condition on the outside, but on the inside they still show some 
of the mutilations inflicted during the last three hundred years, 
although they have been wonderfully altered and improved since 
1870. 

The restorations have been chiefly under the direction of 
the late Sir Gilbert Scott, whose name is a proof of the learning, 
skill, and care that have been used ; and notwithstanding some 
animated differences of opinion expressed in speech and print, 
great praise is not only due the architect, but also those per- 
sons of the county, especially several noble ladies, by whose 
help the work — of unusual value to religion, art, and history — 
has been accomplished. 

Peterborough. — When Peada, prince of Mercia, wished to 
marry Alfleda, daughter of the Christian king of Northumber- 
land, he gained her by renouncing paganism and accepting 
baptism. He then labored to convert the Mercians, and two 
years later, in 655, when he ruled them, founded the Abbey of 
Medhamsted. The region where it stood was lonely, and sur- 
rounded by wide fens and forests, — as dismal and obscure, in- 
deed, as were the times ; but civilization was begun there and 
the Abbey grew. In 871 or 870, the heathen Danes swept like 
a tempest through the wilderness, and destroyed the buildings 
and the archives. From the' ruins the establishment arose after 
966, and once more grew, but again the Danes came soon after 



150 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

William I. was crowned, and perpetrated their customary rav- 
ages. Of course, the Normans soon took possession of the 
place, and gradually re-erected the already venerable Abbey ; 
but about 1116 one of the usual mediaeval conflagrations de- 
stroyed the church. Then, for the fourth time, work upon it 
was commenced, and was continued at intervals for about four 
hundred years, creating the existing cathedral, that thus shows 
the extremes, and several of the changes, in what are called the 
Gothic styles. The Norman abbots, John of Se'es and Martin 
of Bee, between 1117 and 1155, built the choir and east aisle of 
the transept in Early Norman ; William de Waterville, between 
1155 and 1177, completed the transept in middle Norman ; and 
Benedict, from the latter year to 1193, erected the grand nave 
in late Norman. The west front was added in Early English, 
and a " new building," or Lady Chapel, across the eastern end, 
was built, chiefly from 1496 to 1528, in Perpendicular. 

The Abbey became the most important of the Benedictine 
order north of the Thames, and so pre-eminent that " if any 
Briton had a desire to visit Rome, and could not by reason of 
its distance, ... he might repair to St. Peter's in this mon- 
astery, there offer up his vows and receive absolution and the 
apostolical benediction." When monastic institutions were 
suppressed in England, John Chambers was the abbot. About 
eight years after his accession, Catharine of Arragon, first 
queen of Henry VIII., had been buried in the south aisle of 
the choir. A short time later it was suggested to the king 
that he should build " a fair monument for her," and he an- 
swered, " Yes, he would leave her one of the goodliest in the 
kingdom," — a promise that he kept in some sense by ordering 
that the church, soon after the dissolution of the abbey, should 
be converted into the Cathedral of Peterborough. Abbot Cham- 
bers, who seems to have been prudent and averse to martyr- 
dom, desired to preserve this noble edifice that had been placed 
in his charge, and was so successful that in 1511 he was created 
the first bishop of the See, on which, furthermore, two-thirds 
of the monastic property were settled. Henry took the bal- 
ance. In the Civil War disgraceful ravages were committed. 
The stained windows, curious altar-piece, and cloisters, for 




<i r,r/ . fam/'tf ■'£f-a*^a/^te4fin^wvldt>y.Sr <&),#„ 



Lcciefoa CailiecLrali* PeixoLur 
gen&s faciei OccioeaiaLLS. 

Tlie We^ ProfpeA oi jte , 
CAeiral CHxrech at Peterborough- 




PETERBOROUGH. 151 

which the Cathedral had been famous, were destroyed, with 
" sottish folly, and illiterate barbarity ; " indeed, the Cathedral, 
it is thought, was injured more than any other in the country 
at this period. In later years repairs were made, and recently 
extensive restorations and rebuilding are in progress, but all 
traces of the outrages in 1643 have not yet been removed. 

The Cathedral stands at one side of the quiet city, near the 
market-place, from which a gray, monastic gateway opens to the 
close, — a charming spot surrounded by quaint ancient build- 
ings. A green lawn extends some distance to the western front, 
one of the grayest in the country, and unique in design, pre- 
senting three pointed, richly decorated archways, eighty-one feet 
high, capped by curiously niched gables bearing statuary, and 
flanked by small towers on which are spires. Within each arch 
is a deep, dim recess, and at the bottom of the central one is a 
two-storied porch. The sides and east end of the edifice show 
remarkably the calm lapse of centuries, in which a light-brown 
or buff stone, so hard that it retains its surfaces and angles, has 
grown a hoary or iron gray, that is almost uniform, and undis- 
turbed by changes. Great simplicity, a lack of pinnacles, the 
length of the nave, the shortness of the choir, and the French 
apse (a very small one), are conspicuous. A churchyard, with 
fine turf and scattered trees, extends along the northern side 
and eastern end, forming an admirable setting to the venerable 
edifice, and helping to preserve its beautiful and dignified repose, 
that is seldom disturbed, except as flocks of sparrows come and 
go and twitter on the grass, among the branches, or around the 
ancient walls. Seven hundred years of English life seem to 
be calmly sleeping there among works wrought in many a day 
by its best inspirations. Inside the doors, the expression of the 
church is that of the long, vigorous life, awake and full of noble 
activity. 

The interior, when entered as usual at the west, at once im- 
presses the visitor by the extreme length of the nave, with its 
three tiers of massive Norman piers and arches, and a grand 
repose that is sometimes wanting in the lighter, Pointed edifices. 
It has a general resemblance to the naves at Norwich and Ely, 
but the details and their grouping, as well as the ceilings, are 



152 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

dissimilar. The color is a uniform and very pale buff, except 
on the ceilings. These are wooden, nearly flat, and panelled 
lozenge-wise, with borders defined by black or slaty lines, and 
grounds of deep dull red or blue, relieved by various figures. 
The central tower was not high, but was large and interesting. 
When the writer last walked under it, large but old cracks 
were apparent in the bearing arches, one of which in the north- 
eastern spandrel was four inches wide, and one of the eastern 
piers was held in place by iron bands. A few months later it 
was found that any day the tower might fall, and on January 
2, 1883, the work of removal was begun. It was proposed to 
rebuild the parts taken down, and accordingly, the stones were 
numbered when laid aside. On his next visit, the writer found 
that one entire bay of the choir, and one of the clerestory in 
the transept had been thus taken down, along with the tower ; 
and that during the operation the construction of the piers was 
shown. Originally Norman, they had proved that they were 
not strong enough to bear the tower, then higher than of late, 
and in the fourteenth century they were altered, and Pointed 
arches of that date were built above them. Until taken down 
they seemed to be as massive as they were immense ; but on re- 
moval they were shown to be mere shells of thin, faced stones, 
filled with loose sand and rubble. Castle walls built for the 
Norman barons had cores as cohesive, as conglomerate, that 
Nature packs, but some of the monks seem to have been far 
less careful, and accepted cores that only added weight and 
weakness. There is a curious dissimilarity in the work of the 
earlier mediaeval builders, and often treatment that would now 
be called unscientific. Masses for mere effect were built in 
structures meant for use, and walls like these piers were loaded 
with worse than useless filling ; but where such piers as those 
here have for several centuries sustained a heavy, constant 
weight, some caution, at least, is needed in order to form just 
opinion^ That these builders soon learned to carry lofty and 
enormous walls and vaults upon comparatively slender pillars 
is shown at Salisbury. That the stone they chose was good is 
shown at Peterborough, where they used the close-grained 
Barneck freestone, from quarries exhausted before 1400. The 



ELY. 153 

tough English oak also used here proves its quality. A beam, 
shown to the writer, that for five centuries or more had spanned 
the choir, was sound, and bark clung to it as when it was grow- 
ing ; and some of the thin wood used in the original (?) Norman 
ceiling was found to be sound, although other pieces had become 
lifeless. In the year 2500 how will the work of to-day appear ? 
The interior of the transept shows clean surfaces of stone, in 
marked contrast with an ugly wash on the nave, and with mod- 
ern coloring of gold and polychrome upon the ceiling of the 
choir. A very noticeable feature is the semi-circular apse, 
French in character, although the ceiling is flat and does not 
have the French style or design. Upon the latter is a large 
painted decoration by Sir Gilbert Scott, containing a figure of 
Christ, around which are the words, " I am the vine, ye are the 
branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same 
bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing." 
Among other features are good stalls, some colored glass, and 
a finely colored arcade that extends behind the altar. The 
Lady Chapel, or " new building," in Perpendicular style and in 
fine order, has a low-arched, groined ceiling covered with elab-; 
orate fan tracery. Several altars that were here have disap- 
peared, and the oldest remaining object is said to be a small, 
dark monument to Abbot Hedda (?) 870, made of Purbeck 
marble, with mutilated sculptures, thought to represent Christ 
with the twelve apostles, and to date more probably from about 
1100. The richest modern work is a stone pulpit (that was 
placed beneath the tower), made of fine-grained Scottish sand- 
stone, of a deep dull-red color, well relieved by shafts of dark 
green, and a cornice of variegated reddish marble. There are 
few monuments, and nothing remains of those to Catharine of 
Arragon and Mary Queen of Scots, both of whom were buried 
in the south aisle of the choir, although the portrait of the 
verger who interred them is preserved. 

Ely. 1 Eighteen years after the great Benedictine Abbey 
was begun at Peterborough, another was founded at Ely by 

1 See Bentham, J., History and Antiquities of the Conventual and Cathedral 
Church of Ely, 673-1771, 2 vols., roy. 4°, Cambridge, 1771. Supplement by 



154 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

St. Ethcldreda. Although unlike the former, it was built on 
rising ground, it also was surrounded by the swamps and forests 
that then covered large tracts in Eastern England, and it also 
was subjected to similar ravages by the Danes in 870. A cen- 
tury later it was re-established, and in 1109 became the seat 
of a new bishopric. 

The Cathedral, the successor of the earlier church, like that 
at Peterborough and that at Norwich, although chiefly Norman, 
shows the successive changes in the mediaeval styles to late 
Perpendicular. Its nave and transept are dignified and simple 
Norman ; the west porch and east part of the choir and the 
great central tower, or octagon, are thought to be the noblest 
examples of Decorated in the country. Among its most dis- 
tinguished features are its length, its unique and splendid octa- 
gon, and the thorough restoration of the interior, a work not 
surpassed by any other of the kind in Europe. 

The exterior of the edifice, built of strong Barneck stone, has 
grown a venerable evenly-tinted gray, varied by whitish lichens 
and by light-brownish color on the refaced north end of the 
transept. Except in the western front, the general effect and 
style are simple. This front presents also an unusual lofty 
central tower from which extend high wings, the southern one 
of them flanked by an octagonal tower, — a completing feature 
now lacking on the northern. All of these parts are covered 
with rich niches, traceries, or windows of but moderate size. 
Beneath the tower there is a boldly projecting porch, that has 
been restored and shows a great deal of carving, and fine colored 
marble shafts. The centre of the cross formed by the plan is 
marked by the broad octagon, that is crowned by a smaller one 
covered with dark metal. These, and the transept, choir, and 
apse, have many pinnacles, but the nave has none. Varied 
and pleasant grounds surround the edifice. Along the north- 
ern side there is a churchyard ; a long, green, shaded public 
place extends westward from the front ; a grassy area lies east- 
ward, and southward is a collection of curious old buildings, 
among which are several remarkable objects. Moonlight, as 

W. Stevenson, imp. 4°, Norwich, 1817. — History of Ely, 2d ed., edited by W. 
Stevenson, imp. 4°, London, 1812, and his Supplement, Norwich, 1817. 



ELY. 155 

the writer found, increases peculiarly the impressiveness of 
this exterior, developing the salient points and deepening the 
recesses. 

The interior is, however, the great glory of Ely. Few travel- 
lers along the route northward give themselves the pleasure of 
examining it, and seeing what is of its kind among the world's 
wonders. Entered at the west, the vast nave shows three tiers 
of simple, massive, Norman arches, bearing a triforium that is 
still more important, for it is almost as large as the main ar- 
cade, and much larger than the clerestory. The ceiling is of 
wood, turned with five faces to adapt it to the pointed arch that 
opens to the octagon, which was probably built at the same 
time. These faces bear a painted decoration in compartments, 
representing the tree of Jesse, with twelve subjects, from the 
Creation to Christ, at the east, supported on each side by 
figures of the prophets and other Bible personages. Thirty- 
six panels are connected with the tree. In smaller panels next 
the wall, are " busts exhibiting the generations of our Lord up 
to Adam, according to the Gospel of St. Luke." The colors 
are not strong, and the effect is pleasing and subdued, and not 
in too great contrast with the walls, that are, as usual, pale 
buff. The whole work, forming the largest pictorial decoration 
in an English church, was begun in 1858, by Le Strange, and 
continued after his death, in 1862, by Mr. Parry. A brilliant 
and appropriate addition to the coloring is gradually made by 
filling the windows of the nave with painted glass, by which it 
will be much improved as well as enriched. 

The octagon resembles in design and form a dome more 
closely than any other work attempted in the Pointed style. 
From a tall arch on each of its sides, groins spring forward to 
the central lantern, and support it, having on their faces gold 
and light tints, and on their returns to the arches, blue and 
gold. The vaulting of the lantern has blue and gold upon the 
faces, and red and gold on the returns. Around the drum, in 
upright panels, stand finely designed and painted angels with 
aureoles, harmonizing with gorgeous glass that fills the win- 
doAvs. The space, the graceful lines, the beauty of the whole 
design and detail, and the richness of the varied color, form 



156 MIDLAND CATHEDKALS. 

together an effect that is as splendid as it is unique. The 
original conception seems to have been occasioned by an acci- 
dent. A large, square, central tower fell eastward in 1321, or 
1322, ruining three bays of the choir, and Alande Wolsing- 
ham, then sacrist, planned the existing octagon, which was 
completed in 1342. He used eight piers instead of the usual 
four, piled a lesser load upon them, gained abundant light, and 
proved that the Pointed style was capable of an imposing ar- 
rangement, — that was used two centuries later in the Renais- 
sance. He left, indeed, a work of genius. Alone " of all the 
architects of Northern Europe," he shaped " the only Gothic 
dome in existence," says Mr. Fergusson. His death occurred 
about 1364, and it is not known where he was interred. His 
master-piece was built in what always has been a small country 
town, that owes existence and distinction to the ancient church 
which still forms its great feature, beside which all else in it 
is obscured ; but he and his dome and church are famous wher- 
ever the realm of art extends. 

The transept shows ranges of round-headed Norman arches, 
but in the upper part of each end there are tall Perpendicular 
windows. Wood forms the ceilings, which show the sloping 
framework of the roof, all painted with light patterns on dark 
grounds. 

The choir, in Decorated style, is even more superb, and its 
architectural richness is made still more effective by abundant 
color, especially in the windows, nearly all of which are filled 
witli new and splendid glass. The elaborately ribbed groins of 
the ceiling show light tints on the ribs and bright color in the 
bosses, that gives prominence to gilded sculpture. In the east- 
ern part are many slender shafts of polished Purbeck marble, 
that are very dark, and present perhaps too great a contrast 
with the pale stone walls. This marble, used extensively in 
England in the earlier Pointed buildings, does not wear well, 
and splits like wood or loses its surface. Here it has been 
repaired by covering broken places with hot shellac and pow- 
dered marble, and by rubbing down the mixture to a uniform 
and polished face. The triforium in the choir is remarkable, 
and even finer than that at Cologne. Particularly noticeable 



ELY. 157 

are corbels along it of unusual depth and richness, supporting 
the vaulting shafts. Even finer than the structure are the de- 
tails of the choir. Elaborately wrought iron gates open to the 
aisles, and brass gates beneath a beautiful carved-oak rood- 
screen open at the centre. Beyond the later, on each side, are 
stalls of wood, also very elaborate and ornamented with high 
reliefs, cut at Louvain, representing many Biblical subjects, and 
added about 1860. The treasure of the choir, however, is the 
elaborate alabaster rercdos, designed by Sir Gilbert Scott and 
erected by Mr. Gardner, of Chatteris, in memory of his wife. Its 
panelled base is covered with carved leaves and flowers, and 
bears twelve twisted pillars, decorated with agate, in Italian 
fashion, and placed beside eleven upright compartments filled 
with sculptures covered by sharply gabled canopies. Still larger 
and much higher gables rise above them with a profusion of 
exquisitely cut finials, crockets, traceries, and statuettes. The 
altar-cloth, a recent work, is admirable, and the very pavement, 
with five steps reaching to the altar, is of the best encaustic 
tiles and finely polished black marble, made worthy of the 
beautiful memorial. An open screen of elegant design con- 
nects this modern master-piece with the old work in the main 
arcade. The east end of the church is another rich and beauti- 
ful design. It has three tall lancet windows filled with glass, 
that is a modern triumph, representing the descent of Christ 
and the chief events of his life. On each side of this group of 
windows is a surprisingly elaborate chapel, one in florid style, 
the other in late Perpendicular. Both were much injured dur- 
ing the Civil War, but the former has been restored, and, it 
is likely, is as magnificent as ever. The stone used is white 
clunch, resembling chalk, so soft that it can be cut with ease, 
but which is durable when kept dry and not rubbed. The mon- 
uments in the cathedral, it should be added, are numerous, and 
are chiefly in memory of ecclesiastics. 

The Lady Chapel, now the chapter-house, adjoining the north 
end of the transept, is a double cube in shape, and a remark- 
able example of early Decorated. Its ceiling, of five bays, 
is vaulted and elaborately ribbed. The upper portion of the 
walls is pierced by lofty windows, with intricately traceried 



158 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

heads, but the glazing is common and unworthy of them, for 
the colored glass once in them was destroyed by the icono- 
clasts. Around the lower portion of the walls is an arcade 
profusely ornamented in carved clunch, that has been seriously 
injured and defaced by some ugly modern monuments, but that 
still retains traces of red, blue, and other coloring. Restora- 
tion here would be so exceptionally costly that it has not been 
attempted. 

Ely is one of the smallest and most peaceful of cathedral 
towns, and even the public houses show its influence in their 
names, — the " Lamb " and the " Angel." The immense gray 
church that stands so grandly, far above the low, small buildings 
clustered near it, and the wide flat country stretching to the dis- 
tance, is not less impressive when seen close at hand. The east- 
ern end, in Early English, rising from the grass-ground under it, 
is charming. The west front is noble when viewed from the long 
lawn that extends before it, where the old trees lend their grace 
and freshness to its venerable towers. But the impressive view 
of all is that gained when one enters the great church, — a 
surprising contrast with the quiet town and rural country far 
around it ; and much more than this, a scene that has pre- 
eminent distinction in the art of England, and in the revival of 
the mediaeval styles. It is a shrine of these as well as of Ethel- 
dreda, the saint and queen, and of the faith for which she 
labored, the good works of which have followed her own 
through nearly forty generations. She, as her dower, received 
this ground, then hemmed in by the fens, and called the Isle 
of Ely ; for according to a legend, the sea at one time quite 
surrounded it. During six years (673 to 679) she was the 
abbess here, until her death, but the twelve centuries of active 
Christian service since her time upon this spot have given it 
greater consecration. Devoted genius, piety, and wealth in re- 
cent times have made the shrine well worthy of these long 
associations and the grander present England. The artist's 
skill, the churchman's zeal, the layman's treasure, have com- 
bined to make the great cathedral of to-day a representative 
of the strong, prosperous, cultured nation that succeeds the 
petty Saxon kingdom, with its bogs and forests, poverty and 



NORWICH. 159 

turmoil. Turton, Peacock, Gardner, Scott, and many more, 
should be remembered with the lady who in dismal times made 
Ely like a beacon in the darkness, to grow even brighter through 
the day that came, and light the name of Etheldreda. 

Norwich. The history of this See dates from the early part 
of the seventh century, when its seat was at Dummoc, a Ro- 
man station on the coast of Suffolk, now called Dunwich. A 
new See was established about forty years later, at Elmham in 
Norfolk, and was removed by the Normans to Thetford, whence 
Bishop Losinga, in 1094, transferred it to Norwich. There, in 
1096, he founded the existing cathedral and a Benedictine Ab- 
bey. Five years later the eastern parts were occupied by sixty 
monks, although the nave was not begun for twenty years, or 
finished until about 1145. In 1171 and 1272 the edifice was 
seriously damaged by fire, but was subsequently restored. Soon 
after the middle of the fourteenth century the spire was built 
upon a Norman tower, of which, says Winkle, no other one in 
England " can boast above half its height, and not half its 
decoration." The west front was altered in the second quarter 
of the fifteenth century, in the last half of which the nave was 
vaulted, and the clerestory of the choir, with its stone roof, was 
added. Between 1501 and 1536 the transept received its vault- 
ing. Thus the edifice shows workmanship and styles of several 
periods, besides important recent restorations. 

Norwich is a large and busy place, especially on market days, 
for it is the chief town of a wide agricultural and grazing region. 
The most important structure it contains, besides the cathedral, 
is the imposing keep of the old Norman castle, described upon 
page 73. In and around the town are hills of moderate height. 
Quaint, narrow streets wind over the uneven surfaces, and some 
of them lead aside to a tract of low ground. 

Tlie Cathedral, a long, gray edifice, stands here, exposed 
towards the north and west, and on the south enclosed by private 
gardens. Its exterior shows restorations made many years ago 
upon the nave and north arm of the transept. Chief among 
its features are a central spire, a very long nave, and a heavy 
rounded apse. Like all of the design outside, the western front 



160 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

is simple, presenting, as it does, little more than a lofty gable, 
three small doorways, and a large pointed window, the tracery 
of which is Perpendicular. 

The interior is far grander than the exterior, and its English 
features of great length, small breadth, and moderate height, 
are evident. A French apse, simplified, a triforium like a 
second aisle, enormous piers, and the three tiers of noble 
arches, plainer and more open than those at Ely and at Peter- 
borough, show a grand unchanged example of the Norman 
plan and style. In the sides, the windows are later, and too 
many of them are of inferior design, but the Decorated pointed 
vaulting is magnificent, and according to the English manner, 
is intricately ribbed and studded with rich bosses. Coats of 
yellow wash and other relics of bad taste, or of none at all, 
have been removed, and the imposing stone-work is left " in 
native truth and honor clad." It is of a soft material, that on 
the exterior wears badly, but that under shelter keeps its sur- 
face. At an early date it was enriched by color, many frag- 
ments of which were found when the yellow wash was taken 
off. This color has been, at least to some extent, renewed, to- 
gether with the gilding on the bosses. The stately choir shows 
in a much more striking manner rich late Pointed work rising 
above Norman, the latter of which is shown by the two lower 
great arcades. The lofty clerestory, entirely in the former 
style, and very elegant, is 83 feet high, or fourteen more than 
in the nave, a difference unusual in England. In the central 
tower, which is formed like a lantern, the ceiling is much 
higher. Sixty-two tall, graceful stalls, above four centuries 
old, deserve especial notice. They have misereres, or shallow 
tilting rests, not seats, contrived to teach the monks due vigi- 
lance while leaning on them. Under each rest is a curious 
carving of quaint figures, many of which are particularly 
secular and suggestive of a living world not distant. The 
Lady Chapel and the chapter-house were destroyed long ago, 
and a curious and almost oval chapel on the south side of the 
choir, of late restored, has been used for the latter. Among 
the minor features are several interesting monuments ; and 
of objects more peculiar, one is an elaborately traceried open 



LINCOLN. 161 

screen between the south end of the transept and the choir 
aisle. It fills the whole of the high Norman arch, except the 
lower portion, which is occupied by a wall and doorway. An- 
other door, between the cloister and the south aisle of the nave, 
bears, in an unusual way, athwart the mouldings of its pointed 
arch, seven statues richly canopied. 

The cloisters, remarkably entire, extensive, and imposing, 
have grown black with age, and showed, a few years since, 
some crumbling mouldings on the inside, and much scaled or 
disintegrated stone on the outside ; yet they are very fine and 
among the best in England. There are four walks or aisles, 
that date from widely separated times since 1297, but " a gene- 
ral uniformity of style " prevails, says Britton. All these aisles 
have vaults, with bosses, that form a real museum of mediseval 
carving, and traceried archways towards the court, which were 
formerly glazed. In the west walk are exquisitely designed 
lavatories made for the monks, who showed practically that 
cleanliness is near to godliness, and that great beauty should 
surround attention paid to it. 

Few of the ancient edifices, such as are sometimes gathered 
around a cathedral, now remain at Norwich, but there are still 
two of the old monastic gateways, differing in design, and both 
beautiful. The church is now, of course, well cared for, and 
the effects of the assaults of time, as well as of the mutilations 
that it suffered in the seventeenth century from imitators of 
the heathen Danes, are disappearing, while ancient dignity is 
revived. 

Lincoln, 1 an ancient and important city, is the centre of a 
wide and generally level, rural country, over which it rises, 
crowning a commanding ridge. On this, and down a steep long 
slope towards the south, it has grown until its size is consider- 
able. The Romans realized the advantages of such a site, and 
built a military station on it, around which a large busy town 
sprang up, and for a long while flourished. Lindum Colonice, 
as it was then called, was square, or nearly so, surrounded by 

1 See History and Antiquities of the Cathedral Church of Lincoln, by Chas. 
Wild, 2d edition by John Britton, royal 4°, and folio, London, 1837. 

11 



162 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

strong walls, supplied with baths, and one of the chief seats of 
Roman power in eastern Britain. During the Saxon period the 
place became the capital of Mercia, and endured the trials of 
the times, among which was an assault by the Danes, in 786, 
by whom it was much injured. About 627, Paulinus converted 
many persons in this region to Christianity, and built an excel- 
lent stone church at Lincoln. So good were the results of his 
labors that in about fifty years two bishoprics were formed, 
those of Lindsay and of Leicester. The latter, in 870, was re- 
moved to Dorchester, and probably in 1072, to Lincoln. Until 
the middle of the sixteenth century this See was far larger 
than any other in the country, extending as it then did from 
the Humber to the Thames, and including eight counties, — a 
size much reduced by Henry VIII., who set off from it the Sees 
of Peterborough (1541) and Oxford (1542). Remigius, or Remi, 
of Fecamp, the first Norman bishop (1067-1092), began at 
once the erection of a cathedral, which was consecrated by his 
successor, but, in 1124, was much injured by a fire, and it was 
said, was, in 1185, "cleft from top to bottom" by an earth- 
quake. 

The first thousand years of history in Lincoln are now illus- 
trated by few monuments, but they are very interesting. A 
Roman double arch remains in tolerable order, plainly built of 
larger stones than those in the cathedral, and showing much 
more solid workmanship than the mediaeval. One arch spans a 
street, a smaller one the sidewalk, and an end is incorporated 
in a modern private house. A structure like an ice-house, in 
the area of the cloister, covers a mosaic pavement, — probably 
that of the dressing-room connected with a Roman bath, and 
discovered when a well was dug. On a commanding point a 
little distance west of the cathedral rises the Norman castle, 
still with high, although reduced, stone towers, and walls kept 
in fair order for its recent use, that of the county gaol. Among 
the minor mediaeval objects are -the " Jew's House," the Guild- 
hall, with a venerable arch across the street, and, in the Temple 
Gardens, the ruins of the palace of the bishops and the vicars. 

In 1186, St. Hugh of Lincoln, Hugh of Avalon, became the 
bishop. He had one of those strong characters that swayed 



LINCOLN. 163 

the Middle Ages, and abilities and piety that have left their 
mark through the ages to our time. Born about 1140, some 
three miles from Grenoble, at eighteen he was made a deacon ; 
at twenty-four a prior ; at twenty-seven he was a monk in the 
still spared Carthusian " Grande Chartreuse." In ten years 
more he probably would have become the head of that monas- 
tery, then one of the most distinguished institutions in the 
Christian world. But Henry II. obtained him to be prior of 
the first Carthusian convent in his kingdom, founded by the 
king at Witham in Somersetshire about 1175. St. Hugh was 
bishop of Lincoln for only fourteen years, but, as says Rev. J. F. 
Dimock, a more zealous prelate " seldom, if ever, presided over 
a See of " England, " or any other Christian land." He con- 
ceived the existing cathedral, and built nearly all the eastern 
parts, and as long as they stand, he cannot be forgotten, — " the 
upright, honest, fearless man," the " earnest, holy, Christian 
bishop." Two kings, three archbishops, nine bishops, " populus 
abbatum, turba priorum," in those days of difficult communi- 
cation, attended his burial. The nave was probably erected 
under Hugh of Wells (1209-1235), and the upper part of the 
west front was built upon the lower Norman part that was pre- 
served. Within the next twenty years the western transept 
and the lower story of the central tower were probably com- 
pleted. The latter tower, the " Angel-choir," and cloisters, 
were entirely finished by the end of the same century ; but the 
tops of the west towers, the latest prominent parts of the edi- 
fice, date only from about 1450. 

The Cathedral, the third in size in England, has inside and 
out, one of the most intricate and elaborate designs, and a more 
commanding site than any other, except Durham. The ap- 
proach to it is by a straight street more than half a mile in 
length, and thence by an abrupt and narrow way that bears the 
appropriate name of " Steep Hill," from which an ancient gate- 
way opens to the close. Due justice to the grandeur of the 
site, and the imposing form and aspect of the church when 
seen from a distance, is hardly clone by the immediately sur- 
rounding buildings, which are rather poor ; but every part of 
the exterior of the mighty edifice itself deserves a study, for 



164 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

the variety and effect throughout are wonderful. An oolite 
stone found in the neighborhood is used. It grows extremely 
hard on exposure and now has a general coloring of sombre 
gray, that on the summits of the towers has become hoary. 
The west front, chiefly Early English, is an oblong square mass, 
of huge dimensions, flanked by turrets which are octagonal and 
pinnacled, accented in the centre by a traceried gable, crossed 
by six arcades, and varied by three lofty arches at the middle, 
under and beside which are five low Norman arches, parts of 
the original cathedral. Some five and twenty years ago it was 
repaired, and now its color is a deep iron-rust brown that blends 
with gray upon the upper portion of the towers, and black along 
the base, except where there are patches of new light-gray stone 
in which are yellow touches. On the south side of the edifice, 
where there have been extensive restorations, a yellowish tint 
prevails. Among the numerous interesting details is the main 
door, an example of unusually ornamented Norman, while at 
the southeast is a very rich and beautiful Decorated porch 
flanked by Perpendicular chapels, some of the latest parts 
erected. 

The interior of the nave is at first disappointing. It is dingy, 
bare, and cold, and lacks solidity and height. In the departed 
age of white and yellow wash it was entirely covered with a 
mean coat that in time grew shabby, showing what the nave at 
Salisbury once was, as that now shows what this hereafter may 
be made. The piers of the arcade are slight, and are made 
to seem less substantial since around each one of them are 
gathered eight small shafts, detached or cut like mouldings. 
Each bay is extremely wide, and has in the triforium two large 
bearing arches under which are six small arches, and in a low 
clerestory a group of three lancet windows, above which rises 
an elegantly ribbed vaulting. All of these arches are supported 
by grouped slender Purbeck pillars with unusually elaborate 
capitals. Along the lower portion of the walls are elegant 
arcades, and above them are tall lancet windows. But the 
" abominable wash " remorselessly disfigures everything, and 
the coloring is made worse by dampness that stains the 
lower parts of the walls, and a pale dirty brown with which 



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LINCOLN. 165 

the Purbeck shafts are bedaubed. Besides this, the latter 
frequently have decaying surfaces, and the vaults of rough 
stone-work that seem meant for plaster, have a bad coating 
now cracked and stained. 

Towards the east the prospect brightens. The interior of 
the central tower, open to an unusual height, is very noble. At 
each end of the transept is a window filled with old colored 
glass collected after ravages by the iconoclasts ; the southern 
one is a rose window, of uncommon magnificence, with flowing 
tracery, and the northern, of smaller size, presents an elabor- 
ately ornamented geometrical design. A great deal of new 
colored glass has been placed in the aisles of the nave at the 
east end, and in the clerestory of the choir and transept. 

The choir, in general outline of design, resembles the nave, 
but it is even far richer in details. Its three east bays that 
form the retro or " Angel-choir," or presbytery, are wonder- 
fully beautiful, and the whole east end is filled and made radi- 
ant and stately by an immense window with geometrical tracery. 
One bay of the uncommonly elaborate triforium has been " re- 
stored," and that, of its kind, is quite enough. This "Angel- 
choir," so called from angels sculptured in the spandrels of 
the triforium, is Decorated and is thoroughly English, and apart 
from its great beauty is of significant importance. Even more 
so is the choir itself. St. Hugh, its builder, although a French- 
man, was " the first effectual promoter, if not the actual inven- 
tor of [the] national and most excellent Early English style," 
says Mr. Dimock. Geoffrey de Noiers, his architect, was prob- 
ably a native Englishman. M. Yiollet-le-Duc, a very competent 
authority, declared upon examination, that French influence is 
not shown at Lincoln, but that " the construction is English ; 
the profiles of the mouldings are English ; the ornaments are 
English ; the execution of the work belongs to the English 
school of workmen of the beginning of the thirteenth century." 
It should be remembered that the main choir was probably 
built between 1186 and 1200, and the " Angel-choir " between 
1270 and 1282. 

The sculptures, cut in Lincoln oolite, Mr. Cockerell says, 
show " vigor, freshness, and originality," and a " complete 



166 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

emancipation from any known prototype or prevailing manner. 
. . . Giotto was but an infant when these works were exe- 
cuted." The exquisitely foliated capitals and striking figures, 
masterpieces as they are, are more than ornaments, they are 
full proofs that when the artist formed them, there was a re- 
finement and a sense of grace and beauty in that ancient Eng- 
land not unworthy of her splendid present, that the churchmen 
and the laity could then interpret and embody many an exqui- 
site perception of more than human origin. No superstition 
could produce such work ; an inspiration from the heavens 
alone could guide the hands of these old sculptors. A com- 
parison of what they wrought, with certain objects in the choir 
that date about a hundred years or less ago, shows manifest 
superiority in the work of the thirteenth century. There is at 
Lincoln little of the admirable and sumptuous recent work now 
found in several other cathedrals in the country, but the inter- 
est is concentrated on the ancient work of the magnificent ex- 
terior, and in the beautiful and noble choir. Besides their 
general effect and composition, and their sculptures, special 
parts also are remarkable. There arc sixty-two lofty oak 
stalls showing admirable workmanship, elaborate canopies and 
misereres. Rich ornament also abounds in the Perpendicular 
chapels at the southeast end, that have been well restored in 
grayish stone, and the number and variety of the other chapels 
is unusual. If the monuments arc not numerous, they are in- 
teresting. Noticeable among them is an Easter Sepulchre, in 
the best Decorated style, placed on the north side of the choir, 
enriched with very elegant canopies and carvings ; but St. 
Hugh's golden shrine that stood in the "Angel-choir" long 
ago disappeared. 

The chapter-house has ten sides and a vaulting, supported in 
the centre by a pillar. A large four-bayed vestibule extends 
from one of the sides, and tall lancet windows, placed in pairs, 
occupy the others, except so far as they are filled by an arcade 
around the base. St. Hugh probably began the work, but it is 
chiefly of later date than his time, and yet earlier than the 
chapter-house at Salisbury or that at Wells. It is probably 
also the first of its peculiar form in England, and its exterior 



LINCOLN. 167 

has an individuality given it by huge, isolated piers at each 
angle, from which spring flying buttresses. Unfortunately, the 
interior is disfigured by whitewash on the vaulting and yellow- 
wash on the walls, contrasted with dingy drab on the ribs, 
rendering the effect bare, cold, and unworthy ; and, to add to 
the mutilation, several elegantly decorated canopies have been 
chopped off to give room to a paltry wooden screen. Yet, 
although the desolations of a dreary age have dismally obscured, 
they have not destroyed the ancient dignity and beauty. It is 
a venerable figure, stripped by heartless relatives and shivering 
in a wrap, but it retains its honor, and some day will be fitly 
clad. 

The cloisters are of moderate size. Three of tlie aisles 
remain, with vaultings made of oak, but the fourth aisle was 
demolished to make way for an Italianish and ugly library- 
erected by Sir Christopher Wren. In this incongruous struc- 
ture is a valuable collection of books formed by Dean Honey- 
wood to replace a former one destroyed by fire. The best near 
view of the cathedral, and it is uncommonly imposing, is from 
the northwest corner of the cloisters, whence the nave and 
transept are seen grouped with the central tower, — a pecu- 
liarly English feature, which is shown to grand advantage, as 
is the equally English central spire from the cloisters at 
Salisbury. An impressive addition is often made to the effect 
of the scene by a sound that can be heard far as well as near, 
when the profoundly deep, sonorous boom of " Big Tom," l 
the great bell, in a tremendous voice rolls out the number of 
the hours. 

The central tower should be ascended by one of the small, 
winding stairs that it contains, in order to get views down 
into the great church, or under the tall roof, or among the 
bells, especially when " Big Tom " speaks. The roof is 270 
feet in height from the ridge on which the cathedral rises so 
far above the surrounding country, and thus commands a very- 
wide and pleasant view across an almost level, grazing, agri- 
cultural region, seamed with hedges, fairly wooded, and green 

1 "Big Tom" was cast in the minster yard in 1610. The weight is 9,894 
pounds, and the circumference at the moutli is 22 feet 8 inches. 



168 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

and fertile. There is little rising ground in sight except far 
westward, and nearly all the wide area visible is comprised in 
Lincolnshire. 

Southwell, one of the newest Sees in England, or rather a 
See revived upon a very ancient site of Christian labors, will 
have one of the oldest churches in the country created its 
cathedral. Paulinus, the great missionary of north Lincoln- 
shire in 627, about the time he built a church at Lincoln, 
founded another at Southwell, and a town grew up around it. 
At the Conquest it became collegiate, and was well endowed ; 
that is, it had a number of ecclesiastics large enough to form 
a college or chapter, but without a bishop. Until the Refor- 
mation, from ten to sixteen prebends were maintained here, 
and in 1543 a bishop was appointed to a See established on 
this foundation, but it did not long exist. Queen Mary restored 
the chapter, Queen Elizabeth confirmed it, and at length the 
new See of Notts, formed in 1883, finds a cathedral already 
built, and very happily makes use of the grand parish and 
collegiate church. 

Southwell is one of the pleasantest and quietest, as well as 
smallest, cathedral towns in England. It stands, says Mr. 
Lewis, " on a gentle eminence richly clothed with wood, and 
surrounded by hills of various elevation," in the midst of a 
rural country. There is hardly more than a single street, a 
winding one, and towards its end are the inn and church, both 
of which are of a really charming sort, peculiar to the oldest 
parts of rural England. The "Saracen's Head" has a plain, 
quaint front, two stories high, and although new paint gives it 
a fresh look, it was an old house in the time of Charles I., who 
sometimes held his court in it when it was the " King's Arms." 
In a snug wainscoted apartment on the lower floor, now a 
coffee-room where a traveller can be very comfortable, His 
Majesty, on May 6, 1646, gave himself up to the Scotch com- 
missioners, and thus led to an important change in his own 
history and that of his country. 

The church is large and noble, cruciform, and very gray. 
It has a central and two western towers, the latter crowned 



SOUTHWELL. 169 

by new but antique-looking, tall, square roofs, cone-shaped and 
darkly-slated, so that they give the front a French effect. At 
the northeast a prominent cone-roofed chapter-house increases 
the picturesqueness of the edifice, while around it a broad, 
walled churchyard, grass-grown, and shaded here and there 
by trees, preserves its calm repose. The venerable gray of 
the church walls is undisturbed, except by the renewal of a 
curious Norman gable on the north end of the transept. The 
interior of the nave has, however, undergone a full restoration, 
and there the stone-work is a pale, warm buff. Very low and 
massive arcades, said to be as early as the reign of Harold, 
support a semi-circular ceiling, which shows heavy wooden 
rafters that retain their native color, and are about half a 
yard apart. Like the nave, the simply-designed transept is 
Norman, in marked contrast with the choir, which is Early 
English in style, and very light in color. While the stalls 
and some other details are plain, there is a rich case for the 
organ, and the entrance is through an elaborate and elegant 
screen. 

Forming a worthy companion to the venerable and very early 
nave, the octagonal chapter-house shows the development of 
mediaeval styles in an elegant Decorated design. Around the 
base is an arcade, with capitals and corbels carved with a 
marvellous variety of natural foliage and small animals, all 
showing careful workmanship, and remarkable for drawing as 
well as undercutting. In the coupled arches of the doorway 
there is an even more surprising maze of delicate sculpture, 
with similar subjects, surpassing that in the arcades, and 
thought to be unrivalled in the country. 

During the Civil War the church and large adjacent ecclesi- 
astical buildings were barbarously mutilated, and the former 
was made a stable. Some of the iron rings then used for the 
horses remained there as late as 1793. In 1711 still further 
damage was done by lightning ; but in 1804 the edifice, that 
had "long been in a state of almost absolute ruin," was thor- 
oughly repaired. The recent restorations will complete this 
work, and help to preserve one of the oldest and most curious 
and precious of all English churches. 



170 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

Oxford Cathedral, although very small, and placed in con- 
trast with the numerous and varied buildings of a unique city, 
shows examples of the national styles, from late Norman to 
Perpendicular, or between 1150 and 1550, and is an interest- 
ing structure. If considered by itself, apart from the great 
group of which it forms a member, it also is important. Al- 
though it may be called pre-eminent in a great centre of the 
arts and learning, it shows curiously how the early history of 
even such an object may become uncertain, or debatable, for 
both the date of the erection of some of its parts, and the 
names of the builders, have been differently stated by various 
authors. The existing edifice was, however, the church of the 
priory of St. Frideswide. She is said to have been a zealous 
Saxon lady, born at Oxford early in the eighth century, who 
became devoted to a monastic life, and whose father built for 
her a convent, where, according to Leland, she died October 
19, 740. In such esteem was she held that she was made the 
patroness of the city. Her church was burned in 1002, and it 
was not, apparently, until the middle of the twelfth century 
that the rebuilding was begun, it is thought, by Prior Guimond. 
He was succeeded by twenty-five priors who ruled until the 
Reformation, but the history of the priory is not important. 
In 1523, Cardinal Wolsey converted it into a college with pro- 
vision for 186 members, and after various changes, Henry VIII., 
in 1545, translated an Episcopal See from Oseney, established 
three years before, and, November 4, 1546, made the existing 
edifice " the Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford." 

The exterior is nearly hidden by surrounding buildings, and 
the best or only view of it is from a canon's garden on the 
north side. Its chief feature is the central spire, said to be the 
earliest in the country. 

The interior shows a nave now only about one half of its for- 
mer length, built in a peculiar style of Norman, with round, 
heavy pillars, bearing arches that enclose a low triforium and 
support a curious clerestory and a flat wooden roof. Origi- 
nally the central tower was open to the spire. The choir is 
similar to the nave, except in the ceiling, which is a curious 
low vault elaborately ribbed and panelled, and ornamented with 



GLOUCESTER. 171 

late Pointed pendants. In general color the interior is quite 
light, varied, however, by several windows with old glass, which 
improve its effect and also increase its interest, as do a few ob- 
jects among the simple fittings. Of the latter the richest thing- 
is a lofty and elaborate screen with three rows of niches that 
dates from the thirteenth century and belonged to the shrine 
of St. Frideswide, or more probably, to the watching chamber 
for the protection of its treasures. The monuments, if not 
numerous, are valuable, and these and elaborate bosses in the 
Latin chapel should be examined. Among recent changes 
have been the removal of some curious but incongruous wood- 
work introduced in 1630, and the repair of the interior about 
twenty years ago. Usually the chapter-house is a very interest- 
ing part of a cathedral, and here it is one of the best parts, a 
double square in shape, Early English in style, and charming. 
in effect. 

Gloucester. Caer Glow upon the Severn is said to have 
been built before the Romans entered Britain, and to have be- 
come the site of an important castrum, or station (as remains 
have shown), which they called Glevum, a name changed by 
the Saxons to Glowecester. Tradition says that Christianity 
was planted there in 189, while it is more positively stated that 
towards the end of the seventh century a nunnery was estab- 
lished, which, after changes, became in 1022, a Benedictine 
Abbey. This remained until the Reformation, when it was 
one of the richest monastic institutions in the country. After 
the Dissolution, in 1541, the church was made the cathedral of 
a See erected in that year, and still continued, — an impressive 
proof of the magnificence of the old abbey ; for it far surpasses 
any modern building in the city, and in several features is re- 
markable among edifices of the same rank. The town, it may 
be added, although evidently no new one, does not in appear- 
ance suggest antiquity, and may not unjustly be considered less 
interesting than some others in England. 

The Cathedral probably shows work and styles from near 
the end of the eleventh century to that of the fifteenth, as 
well as the results of recent extensive restorations or renewals. 



172 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

It is comparatively short, and has a small, short transept and a 
rounded eastern end, from which extends a very long, large 
Lady Chapel with a small unusual chapel on each side. Along 
the north side of the nave are extensive and extremely rich 
cloisters, and upon the south there is a very fine example of 
the English porch. The eastern window and the cloisters are 
the most magnificent in England, and in keeping with them 
is the choir, that although short, is superb, and contrasted 
strongly with the original, low, elliptically-arched Norman 
crypt beneath it. Four times in the twelfth century the 
usual mediaeval fires did damage to the Norman church then 
already built, while the nave, that was completed in 1100, 
was probably affected by the same cause, and was repaired. 
In 1239 the church was rededicated, and three years later the 
roof of the nave, with a Pointed vaulting, was finished. Be- 
tween 1420 and 1437 the whole of the west front and two bays 
of the nave were pulled down and replaced by others in Decor- 
ated style, used also for the beautiful south porch. Between 
1329 and 1377 the Norman work of both the transept and the 
choir was cased with Decorated of elaborate design, and the 
great east window (1345-1350) was built. During the next 
sixty years the cloisters were added, and the series of styles 
was ended and completed by the Lady Chapel in late Perpen- 
dicular (1472-1498). 

The marked peculiarities or beauties of the church will well 
reward examination. The exterior is in good order, but as 
much of it has never been " restored," it is not fresh. An ex- 
ceptional part is the elaborately decorated southern porch, that 
had grown much decayed, but now has new work, designed by 
Mr. Waller, that includes the statuary which the weather had 
destroyed. On many parts outside a clayey gray to iron-gray 
color prevails, contrasted with a yellowish sandy tint on the 
west front, which has been restored, and a deep, venerable 
gray on the central tower. This tower is very bold in form 
and richly ornamented, and is thought to be the stateliest in the 
country. At each of the angles at its top is an unusually large 
open-work pinnacle, large enough to be the tower of a small 
church, and a study in design. From the roof an extensive 



GLOUCESTER. 173 

prospect is commanded, which, if not wonderful, is attractive, 
as also are views from the grounds around the edifice, admi- 
rably laid out as they are with lawns and beds of flowers. 

The interior, showing examples of almost every style, from 
Norman in the nave to Perpendicular at the east, is built of 
stone brought from a quarry six miles distant, and still retain- 
ing its native pale-buff color. Each end of the edifice is filled 
with the elaborate tracery and splendid glazing of an enor- 
mous window, — the western one new and brilliant, with ar- 
morial bearings, and the eastern presenting an immense 
expanse of precious mediaeval glass. There are said to be 
3,500 pounds weight of the latter, which was reloaded in 
1862 at a cost of <£G00, and £1,400 were spent at the same 
time on the tracery. Figures, shields, and ornaments upon 
pale grounds form the design, and have a rather dim effect in 
color. The end of the choir is curiously widened to make 
room for the window, the height of which is 87 feet. A char- 
acter of its own is also given the nave by a unique arcade, with 
huge round pillars thirty feet in height and six feet in diame- 
ter, or about twice as high as are the piers at Norwich, Peter- 
borough, and Ely. At both the latter places the three ranges 
are of nearly the same height, while here the triforium and 
clerestory are dwarfed, but great apparent height is given the 
main arcade, although at too great cost. Yet it is well that 
such a design as this at Gloucester was carried out, not merely 
for variety, but to show what could be done with the Norman 
style. At Durham there is a third variety, and all the three 
are interesting when compared. The choir here is marked by 
very upright lines that run into a vaulting much divided by un- 
usually complicated ribs, more simple in arrangement than they 
seem, but giving a very rich effect peculiarly English, and fully 
developed of late in a thorough restoration by Sir G. G. Scott. 
While the general color is quite pale, the ribs show pea-green 
backed by red lines, and on the numerous bosses is burnished 
gilding that makes the vaulting seem to be half golden. One 
of those noble works that have of late been placed in several of 
the English cathedrals is prominent here, — the new and magnifi- 
cent reredos designed by Sir G. G. Scott, who has given it less 



174 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

color and more detached sculptured figures than appear in al- 
most any other similar work. It presents four narrow niches 
containing statues of St. Peter and St. Paul, Moses and David, 
between which are three much larger niches, with groups of the 
Nativity, Entombment, and Ascension, all crowned by tall open 
canopies that cover angels bearing emblems. Other admirable 
works have also been added. The sedilia have been rebuilt, 
with elaborate canopies ; the stalls have been repaired ; the 
pavement has been reconstructed of tiles and marbles, but less 
successfully, it has been thought, and a large amount of new, 
rich glass has been placed in the windows. 

The Lady Chapel is unusually light, as well as large, and 
shows upon all sides and over its groined ceiling a continuous 
web of panelling formed by Perpendicular tracery and compli- 
cated ribs. About three quarters of the wall is filled by lofty 
windows, the design of which is prolonged down the entire face 
of solid wall beneath them. Besides other decoration on the 
ceiling there are finely carved bosses. The side chapels, that 
have been already mentioned, it should be added, are extremely 
picturesque. 

The monuments, if not particularly numerous, are very in- 
teresting. One of them is to the reputed founder of the Abbey, 
Osric of Mercia, who died in 681, and dates from the first half 
of the sixteenth century. Another, still more distinguished, 
was built about 1330 to Edward II. It is an altar-tomb, above 
which rises an extraordinary group of canopies and pinnacles 
in three combined divisions, covering the King's effigy, made 
of alabaster. Another monument shows the recumbent figure 
of Robert Courtehouse, the oldest son of William I., and a great 
benefactor of the Abbey. " Cromwell's soldiers " broke it up 
in 1641, and Sir Humphrey Tracy bought the pieces, which 
were restored to their proper position after 1660. Among other 
remarkable restorations is the chapel of St. Paul, at the north 
end of the transept, — a brilliant work, which is a memorial of 
early and modern art as well as of the Earl of Ellenborough. 

The cloisters show throughout a vaulting and sides covered 
with remarkably rich tracery, the divisions of which towards 
the open area are glazed, and form a series of memorial 



HEREFORD. 175 

windows. Along the north aisle, on the outer side, there is a 
range of curious recesses, and upon the south a rare and beau- 
tiful example of the monkish lavatories. The fan tracery upon 
the vaulting is peculiarly English, and is thought to be the 
earliest of its kind, and to have been the work of local masons. 
A soft, poor stone, almost like rotten " Bristol brick " in texture 
and in color, has unfortunately been used, and is now patched, 
or crumbling in premature decay, but the work is in as good 
order as perhaps is possible. Notwithstanding all defects, 
however, these cloisters have few rivals among any that have 
been built in the Pointed style. 

Hereford. The history of Hereford recedes into the dim- 
ness of the Middle Ages, and some persons think that they can 
trace it a greater distance than others can, but the city proba- 
bly dates from the early Saxon times. Christianity may have 
been introduced during the sixth century, and the line of 
bishops may be said to have begun, in 676, with Putta. The 
place was not then important, but became so when it was an 
English military post on the frontier of Wales, and a formida- 
ble castle was erected south of the cathedral. Little is recorded 
of the bishopric until 1055, when, it is said, Earl Algar and the 
Welsh burned Hereford, and its large minster, that had been 
built by Bishop iEthelstan, after 1012, in place of an old church. 
The ruins stood for nearly quarter of a century, or through 
the troubles of the Conquest ; then Eobert de Losing, the first 
Norman bishop, founded the existing edifice, modelled, says 
William of Malmesbury, from one at Aix-la-Chapelle in Bel- 
gium (but quite unlike the Romanesque cathedral that still 
stands there), and it was dedicated in 1110. The portions 
that remain are the piers of the nave, the choir up to the 
clerestory, and the south end of the transept. Between 1190 
and 1260, or about that time, the Lady Chapel and the clere- 
story of the choir were added in Early English, and afterwards 
several other parts, in various styles, until the north porch was 
finished about 1535, in Perpendicular. The middle styles are 
chiefly shown. A bad stone was used, bad at least for exteriors, 
as it crumbles easily, and flakes peel from the surfaces. It is a 



176 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

different material from any that has yet been mentioned in the 
accounts of the cathedrals, for it is taken from local quarries, 
and this building stands, like those at Worcester, Litchfield, 
and Chester, in a region of red sandstone, with which yellow 
also is mixed. So fragile is it that the exterior of the Lady 
Chapel, only a few years after being almost rebuilt, showed 
ugly breaks. In 1786 (April 17), a great disaster had an even 
more unfortunate effect upon the edifice. The western front, 
of late Norman work, including a large tower, fell, and took 
with it one bay of the nave ; yet this disaster hardly was the 
worst, for James Wyatt was employed to re-erect the front. 
He threw away the Norman stones, and set up his own ignorant 
devices ; but he did attempt to use a more durable material, 
unsuccessfully, however, as that also has badly peeled. The 
bare, blank front that he erected, in no style but his own, is 
said to have cost more than would have been required for real 
and careful restoration of the old design. 

The exterior of the cathedral, apart from the west front, 
shows in the dusky weather-worn, or fresh, red sandstone, pic- 
turesque and very varied outlines, boldly marked by a large, 
rich north porch, two transepts, a long Lady Chapel, and a 
broad and elaborately decorated central tower, with three pin- 
nacles grouped at each corner at the battlemented top. This 
tower, now in good order, gives a dignity and beauty to the 
edifice that almost overpowers the badness of the western 
front. Less than the usual effect is added by trees and 
grounds, as the area about the edifice is smaller and less 
carefully attended to than similar spots in some other cities. 

The interior throughout has been restored, and very well, 
since Sir G. G. Scott had charge of it. In the nave, the walls 
show clean stone of a pale-reddish color, the ceiling is groined 
and covered with elaborate ornament in polychrome, and there 
is little painted glass. The great arcade presents a low and 
massive but rich Norman design, with round pillars seven feet 
in diameter. Although the original harmonious triforium and 
clerestory (shown in plates by Hearne and Wathen) were but 
little injured by the fall of the west tower, Wyatt altered them 
according to his own sweet fancy. On the vaulting of the nave 



HEREFORD. 177 

and of its aisles there is an unusual amount of color ; the ribs 
are buff, but have figures of other tints upon them ; the grounds 
are darker buff, and are much covered with elaborate scroll- 
work in dark brown, and in each division is a small medallion 
with aground of red or blue. New and indispensable piers have 
been built under the central tower, and its very lofty flat ceil- 
ing has been gorgeously colored. There is a marked difference 
in the styles of the arms of the transept. At the south, the de- 
sign is an irregular one in Norman, with a very pale, reddish- 
brown tint and no colored glass. At the north the style is a 
transition from Early English to Decorated, dating between 
1260 and 1268, and the material seems to be different, and has 
a pale, clayey color. The arches of the main arcade and the 
triforium are peculiar, having acute angles, slightly curved 
sides, and heavy toothed ornaments set in deep mouldings. 
Greater variety is given the coloring by stained glass in the 
windows, a pavement of red and green tiles bordered by gray 
sandstone, and an almost white ground upon the vaulting, 
divided into blocks by lines and relieved by richer hues in 
the bosses. 

Two remarkable works are found in this part of the church. 
One is the base of the ancient shrine of Bishop Cantilupe, who 
died near Rome in 1282, and is said to have been the last Eng- 
lishman canonized before the Reformation. The other is a new 
and splendid Rood-screen, designed by Scott, made at Coven- 
try, and one of the earliest of a class of modern master-pieces 
that are peculiarly English in design and execution. Metals 
are the chief material, fashioned into five large arches and a 
central gable, all very open, and, when the western sunlight 
touches them, resplendent with the bright hues of brass and 
copper. 

The choir is very short, presenting walls and vaults of 
cleaned stone that has a pleasant, pale, reddish-brown color, 
and a pavement of tiles with dull red, green, and yellow fig- 
ures. Stalls of dark oak line the vista towards the reredos, 
that although not large is fine and very effectively placed. It 
is made of very pale drab stone, and is elaborately sculptured 
in relief. Six groups of short, dark marble shafts bear five 

12 



178 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

arches and five decorated gables, above which rise six statues, 
standing white and prominent against deep shadows of arches 
in the background. 

The Lad}- Chapel is an unusually elegant example of the 
Early English style much ornamented, and is now one of the 
most interesting parts of the cathedral. It is built of the same 
pale, reddish brownstone used elsewhere in the interior, that 
gives a solemn, dignified effect, and is enriched by coloring in 
the vaults and glass, all of which now is stained. The pave- 
ment is composed of dark marbles, and black, red, and yellow 
figured tiles. Among the more remarkable features is a south- 
ern chapel, built in 1502, with a traceried screen colored and 
gilded. Opposite to it is a rich tomb, said to be that of the 
Earl of Hereford in armor. There is a second, or eastern 
transept, that has been well repaired under the direction of 
Sir G. G. Scott, but it does not show much new work or res- 
toration. An uncommon and beautiful piece of design is a 
double arch facing down the choir, transitional in style, and 
with a richly carved spandrel. 

The library, above the north end of the transept, is a curi- 
ous room, restored by Scott, containing about 2,000 volumes. 
Many of them are still, as of old, chained to the shelves. Here 
are found manuscripts and Caxtons, as they should be in such 
a place. Here also is a famous map of the world that dates 
from about 1314, and shows the curious conception of geogra- 
phy that then existed. England is surprisingly bent, narrow, 
and near Germany ; dragons look out from the west towards 
it; and Wales is almost another island. The map embraces 
the Garden of Eden, classic wonders, and the prodigies sup- 
plied by mediaeval fancy, even suggesting that monkeys lived 
in Norway, and dire monsters in the sea. 

The great, or Bishop's cloister, now represented by two 
aisles, is much dilapidated, and the tracery is badly worn, ex- 
cept, of course, where it has been repaired. As this was always 
a cathedral and was not a monastery, the cloister never was 
complete, but " was little more than an ornamented walk, con- 
nected with the Bishop's Palace," but it was a very handsome 
one, in Perpendicular style, and is well worth seeing. The one 



WOECESTER. 179 

aisle of the lesser cloister also is of interest. A large and fine 
north porch, two stories high, completed in 1530, is notable 
among these often elegant, peculiarly English works. It has 
the curious acute-angled Pointed arches shown in the transept, 
the two extremely tall windows of which are seen at its left. 

The monuments at Hereford, if not now very numerous, are 
interesting, and several are large and fine. Before the Civil 
War there was an immense collection, of a kind peculiarly Eng- 
lish, — brasses set in the walls or pavement. It is stated that in 
1645, during an invasion of barbarians, " no less that one hun- 
dred and seventy brasses were taken away." " Several " others 
were displaced after the disaster in 1786, when " no less than 
two tons weight were sold to a brazier." Ignorant fanaticism 
stirred by the hot blood of war was rivalled by as ignorant 
conceit, existing in cold blood among the Wyatts and church- 
wardens of the real Dark Ages of ecclesiastical art. Both of 
these dismal influences left their mark at Hereford, but of late 
there is happily something better. The ability and genius of 
the thirteenth century, so nobly shown in this cathedral, have 
been rivalled by the work that wealth and piety have wrought 
while guided by the taste and learning of Sir George Gilbert 
Scott. 

Worcester. 1 Among the hills of the old county of Wor- 
cestershire is a quaint and rather large ancient city, the Caer 
Guorangon of the Britons, probably afterwards a station of 
the Komans, and Wigorna-ceastre of the Saxons, from which 
designation comes its name of Worcester. It was in Mercia, 
and when that kingdom was divided about 680, it became the 
seat of an episcopal establishment. Through the four follow- 
ing centuries it bore its share of the vicissitudes which marked 
them, and numbered among its bishops St. Dunstan and St. 
Oswald, the latter of whom became a patron saint of the city. 
Wulfstan II., an even greater saint and local patron, founded 
the existing cathedral in 1084, so that in 1092, the crypt was 

1 See "Wild, C, Illustrations of the Cathedral Church of Worcester, 12 plates, 
atlas 4°, London, 1823. — Willis, Rev. Prof., Arch. Hist, of do., 8°, No. 23 Arch. 
Institute of Great Britain, July, 1862. 



180 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

finished, and was dedicated to St. Mary. Above it a Norman 
church was built, which suffered from the apparently inevitable 
mediaeval fires and fall, for in 1175 the central tower gave way, 
and in 1113, 1189, and 1202, there were conflagrations, in the 
last of which the edifice, except the crypt, was ruined. The 
present church was then begun, and in 1218 was dedicated with 
great pomp, and St. Wulfstan's body was enshrined near the 
high altar. In 1221, two " lesser towers " fell and did much 
damage ; it may have been to the choir, for two years later the 
existing choir and Lady Chapel were begun. So slowly was 
the work continued, and extended to the western end, that 
only in 1374 was the central tower finished, and in 1377 the 
nave, which had been for almost three-quarters of a century in 
progress. Between 1857 and 1877 extensive restorations and 
repairs were made, that in several places amounted to rebuild- 
ing, required by the condition of the edifice. 

The exterior, upon the northern side, is shown throughout 
its whole extent, from the end of the High-street, the chief 
approach, presenting a long plain body with two transepts, all 
the ends of which are gabled and accented by the only pinna- 
cles except those on a rich central tower. The eastern parts 
are Early English, the western are Decorated, and all are built 
of smooth sandstone, with a rather dark red color. So exten- 
sive have been the restorations that the building looks like 
one recently finished. On the north porch there are new fine 
statues, and in the west front is a beautiful and noble window 
( 1865), with double traceries in the heading. Grace and rich- 
ness are also given the tower by slender, elegant buttresses, 
and canopies. 

The interior, however, shows an even more thorough resto- 
ration, and surprises one by the completeness and richness of 
the renewals. It seems like a fresh mediasval church, with 
some refinements that might not have existed in the early ages, 
and rivals Ely as a restoration, although it has less ornament 
and less variety of style. As that is to the cathedrals of the 
first class, so is this to the second. The Decorated nave retains 
the slightly sombre tint of the brown-red and drab-gray stone, 
but it is relieved by a moderate amount of color on the ribs of 



WORCESTER. 181 

the groined ceiling, and by gilding over red on the bosses. 
The triforium, as it is elsewhere in the edifice, is an arcade 
with a plain wall at the back, and spandrels, with sculptured 
figures rising from richly-foliated capitals. Although the tran- 
sept is narrow (for it has a width of only 32 feet), the effect 
of its real height (66 feet) is increased. Its Norman walls 
have been refinished in an early Pointed style, and show cleaned 
surfaces of the irregularly-placed, pale-yellow or green-tinted 
stone of which they are constructed. Both the transept and 
the central tower have vaultings of the same height, — an 
arrangement that is not common in England. Among the 
most remarkable new objects west of the choir is a magnificent 
stone pulpit. From its dark marble base rise columns with 
shafts of green serpentine, and rich capitals that bear arches 
from which spring angels towards an elaborate cornice. The 
body of the pulpit standing on these is a mass of canopied 
sculptures in white, and of architectural features carved in 
reddish-veined alabaster. A new organ of great size and 
power stands in the south part of the transept. 

The choir is richer and more beautiful than the west portion 
of the edifice, and is not less remarkable for the renewal of its 
old glories. It is Early English in style, and good in color, 
for it is built of pale-buff stone, on which scrolls and medallions 
are painted in low tints, so that while there is richness there is 
no undue glare. Adding to this good effect, the many dark 
Purbeck shafts, peculiar to the style, which often give a too 
spotted look, here in a pleasing way accent the prominent 
features ; and a large amount of brilliant colored glass imparts 
its beauty, as it does also to other parts of the edifice. The 
rood-screen at the entrance, dark in color and relieved by 
decoration of bright metal, is very lofty, and so open that it 
does not hide the choir, or interfere with the long vista through- 
out the interior. On each side of it, just within the choir, are 
fine canopies of wood, and in keeping with everything else, are 
the floors, which are good. Among the new works will be found 
a lectern and altar candelabra, made of polished brass, that are 
very large and handsome, and a reredos of a veined, reddish 
alabaster. It has five gabled niches flanked by clustered 



182 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

pillars, and filled by five sitting statues in pare white, around 
all which is profuse carving, set off by inlaid gem-like stones 
and abundant gilding. 

The eastern transept and the Lady Chapel together make the 
choir a large cross-shaped church in itself ; and although they 
are not used for the services, they are finely restored and fin- 
ished. Double tiers of lancet windows on three sides of the 
end light this transept in an effective and unusual manner. 

Previous to the general restoration of the edifice the con- 
dition of the stone-work had become extremely bad, — quite 
harmonious, indeed, with the architectural excrescences ; and 
a recollection of this fact helps to an appreciation of the labors 
of Mr. Perkins, who directed the restoration east of the central 
tower, and of those of Sir G. G. Scott, who made the designs 
for a large part of the new details and decorations. 

The monuments scattered throughout the edifice are numer- 
ous. One of the most distinguished is an altar-like tomb of 
King John, in the east part of the choir, bearing the king's 
recumbent figure, and dating from the sixteenth century. 
Another notable memorial is the chantry of Prince Arthur, 
the oldest son of Henry VII., standing at the south side of the 
altar, and erected in the early part of the same century. It 
contains an altar-like monument, and is a room with open 
traceried sides, a low arched ceiling covered with elaborate 
tracery and a maze of carving, all of which form one of those 
superbly picturesque nooks characteristic of the English Pointed 
style. Time and the iconoclast have laid their cruel hands 
upon it, but it is still beautiful. Besides these pre-eminent 
works the cathedral still contains more than twenty monu- 
ments that bear the effigies of persons they commemorate. 

The chapter-house, in simple Norman style, with a vaulted 
ceiling supported by a central pillar, has the peculiarity of 
being nearly circular. Around the lower portion of the walls 
is an arcade in low relief, built of pale-buff and olive-brown 
stone in stripes. Above this are broad, low, Perpendicular 
windows, or traceries in the same form. The apartment was 
the library until after 1865, when the books were placed in 
rooms above the south aisle of the nave. The cloisters have 



LICHFIELD. 183 

four aisles, but are of moderate size, and arc built of red sand- 
stone, varied by buff bosses, upon many of which are angels 
bearing shields. These cloisters form, says Mr. King, " one 
of the best illustrations remaining in England of the manner 
in which the chief monastic buildings were grouped about 
them." Besides the chapter-house on the east side, a dormi- 
tory, now destroyed, was opposite, and on the south side is 
the refectory, 120 feet in length, built over a Norman crypt, 
and at present used for the " King's school," founded by Henry 
VIII. Between the chapter-house and eastern transept stood 
the Guesten Hall, begun in 1320, and intended for the enter- 
tainment of distinguished guests or pilgrims. This large and 
noble structure which had been allowed to become ruinous 
and was taken down in 1860, showed, says Mr. Parker, " the 
splendid hospitality of the clergy, and illustrated in a remarka- 
ble manner the manners and customs of the time of Edward 
III. It was the last of these structures remaining, and with 
it we have erased a chapter out of the history of England." 

" The See of Worcester," says Mr. Britton, " has certainly 
enrolled, on its list of prelates, many names of high historic 
celebrity. It presents one pope, four saints in the Catholic 
calendar, six lords chancellors of England, three lords treas- 
urers, one king's chancellor, eleven archbishops of Canterbury 
and of York, one Roman cardinal, and many men of general 
learning and of literary merit." The cathedral is an honor 
to the ancient city where they labored, and to the piety, and 
love of national religious art, so evident in its re-edified 
magnificence. 

Lichfield, 1 another of the venerable monuments of the 
devotion and sense of beauty in the Middle Ages, and of 
recent taste, munificence, and piety, stands in the region of 
the red sandstone, looking over the green undulating fields 
of Staffordshire. The town around it, quaint and old fash- 
ioned, is now quiet, except on market days or at the races ; 

1 See Stone, J. B., A History of Lichfield Cathedral, photographs, small 4°, 
London, 1870. — Wild, C, An Illustration of the Architecture of, etc., imp. 4°, 
10 plates, London, 1813. 



184 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

for the place is a rural capital without much trade. Its build- 
ings are generally upon a smaller scale than those in cathedral 
towns in France, but the streets are neater, although made 
more sober by a prevailing color given by dark-red bricks. 
But the associations gathered here have greater interest. Not 
only do they reach into the early British times, and cluster 
around the old cathedral, but they bring to mind a group of 
persons who once lived near it, and names that will live long 
in the literature of England. Dr. Johnson was born here, and 
here he and Addison and Garrick went to school ; and in the 
neighborhood lived the author of " Sandford and Merton," 
Avhoin Maria Edgeworth visited. Here also are the monuments 
of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and of Miss Seward. 

The name of Lichfield, meaning " the field of the dead," comes 
by tradition from a story told of the reign of Diocletian, when 
the Christians are said to have been so numerous in this region 
that a thousand of them were killed here during the emperor's 
great persecution. Utocetum, the Roman station, was less than 
two miles distant. In the seventh century, St. Chad, a hermit, 
some say, had a cell near by the spot marked by a church now 
dedicated to him. He was a missionary, and efficient in convert- 
ing the inhabitants, who formed one of the last groups of Saxon 
subjects to continue in the relapse from Christianity that pre- 
vailed after the invasion of the Northmen. St. Chad became 
the great patron saint of Lichfield as well as its first bishop, or 
the successor of four Mercian bishops. His See was very large, 
but soon was subdivided ; the See of Hereford was formed in 
676 ; that of Worcester in 680, and about the same time those 
of Leicester and Lindsey. The last two were afterwards merged 
in that of Lincoln, and in 1075, when the episcopal seats were 
moved from small to larger places, this of Lichfield was trans- 
ferred to Chester. About a dozen years later it was moved 
to Coventry, and the title became " Coventry and Lichfield," 
and the reverse after the restoration (1660). In earlier times 
there were severe dissensions between two chapters of these 
places in regard to the election of the bishops, and some violent 
proceedings with the monks, especially at Coventry. 

The dates of the erection of the Cathedral are uncertain, 




LICHFIELD CATHEDRAL. 



LICHFIELD. 185 

for its archives were destroyed in 1642 by certain imitators of 
the Mohammedans at Alexandria. Its ground plan shows the 
form of a cross, the east end of which is longer than the west- 
ern. According to Prof. Willis the existing edifice was prob- 
ably began about 1200 at the west end of the choir. About 
1240 the transept and the chapter-house at the north end were 
finished, as were the nave in 1250, the west front in 1275, 
the Lady Chapel in 1300, — all of them in Early English or 
Decorated. 

The exterior is oftentimes first seen from the south-east, 
and there presents some of its most striking features, in one 
of the most picturesque views of any English cathedral. Its 
central and two western spires, a group found nowhere else in 
England, form with the transept a triple pyramid, that rises 
from a little lake reflecting them on its calm surface. When 
they are approached, and are seen from the south, the long 
form of the edifice presents itself, — the Lady Chapel and the 
clerestory of the choir, with elaborately worked battlements 
borne on a screen of closely placed and richly traceried win- 
dows, a bold, plain, and heavy transept, the three sharp spires, 
and a simple nave, all of a deep-red stone, set off by an expanse 
of turf and by lime-trees of deep English green. The western 
front has at each corner a low tower crowned by a lofty spire, 
a central gable rising over a large traceried window, three com- 
paratively low doors, the middle one of which is larger and un- 
usually rich, and no marked buttresses. But there are five 
arcades or rows of arches of various heights across the front, 
that were occupied by nearly a hundred statues, less than half 
of which remain. Many of them, that were years ago restored in 
plaster, will, it is said, be replaced by new stone figures. Re- 
cent much-needed restorations are shown, chiefly on the towers 
and gable just mentioned, and the south side of the nave, all 
of which, consequently, have an effect of newness. 

The interior at once shows that it is in charming order, and 
almost as fresh as in the fourteenth century. It has a solemn 
and subdued, but rich effect, imparted by the deep red-brown 
stone of which it is constructed, and by a large amount of 
colored glass ; and the English characteristics of great length 



186 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

and lowness are unusually evident. Between the writer's first 
and latest visits an extraordinary change in the whole aspect 
has been wrought. The age of whitewash, with its meanness, 
emptiness, and coldness, has disappeared with all its works, 
and the refinement, study, beautiful designs, and careful keep- 
ing of the Victorian age have entered. 

Prominent features of the design are a main arcade that 
throughout is low but elegant, a triforium in the nave, of unusual 
prominence and beauty and finely ornamented, and a clerestory 
that is very subordinate to it, and only fills the wall above the 
springing of the arches of the vault. In the choir there is no 
defined triforium, but a lofty clerestory with spacious windows, 
filled with geometrical tracery. Between the spandrels of its 
main arcade are statues, covered by tall canopies of a sort 
common in Belgium, but rare in England. Throughout the 
edifice the style of the vaultings is quite uniform. 

The minor features, that do much to make the whole effect 
superb, are numerous and rich. Among them is an elaborate 
and open metal rood-screen, designed by Scott, with an artistic 
excellence and delicacy that are remarkable, especially as it is 
the first great work of the sort wrought in modern times in 
England. Near it is a metal pulpit of harmonious design. An 
eagle-shaped lectern is another example of the richness of the 
new furnishings, as also is the Bible of vellum with gold clasps 
and bosses. In the choir and eastern parts the pavements are 
marbles and encaustic tiles by Minton, that, while in the style 
of mediaeval work, surpass it in fineness of color and finish. 
The stalls of oak, designed by Scott, are exquisitely carved, 
and certainly are not inferior to the best English mediaeval 
work. Another of these modern master-pieces that add glory 
to so many of the English cathedrals, is the reredos, begun in 
1863, also designed by Scott, and made chiefly of alabaster, re- 
lieved by rich stones and shafts of dark marble. Its central 
part shows five tall gabled canopies, the middle one of which 
is much the largest, and supports a lofty spire crowned by a 
conspicuous cross. These stand against a solid back, much 
ornamented, but with far less sculpture than there is upon some 
other like works. On either hand a wall, of the height of the 



LICHFIELD. 187 

altar, extends to the sides of the choir, and bears an open screen 
or arcade similar in general outlines to that behind the altar. 
There are sixteen statues of angels, and as many medallions 
with heads, in the composition, besides an Ascension in relief 
beneath the central canopy. The font, placed near the west 
end of the north aisle of the nave, is another fine design. 
Four long sides of the body, that is made of Caen stone, show 
groups illustrating Scriptural subjects, cut in high relief, and 
four short sides have appropriate statues placed in niches, that 
are flanked by pairs of pillars with dark marble shafts. Five 
other pillars with like shafts and richer capitals stand on a 
basement and support the body. 

The Lady Chapel, of unusual size, of the full height and 
width of the choir, is three bays long, besides a unique three- 
sided apse. Along the lower portion of the walls is a canopied 
arcade of great magnificence, above which are nine very lofty 
windows, with tall mullions and heads of geometrical tracery 
rising into the arches of an elegant vaulting. Seven of the 
windows are filled with superb stained glass dating from 1530 
to 1540, and brought in 1802 from the important abbey of 
Herckenrode near Liege, when that was suppressed by the 
French invaders. Although its value is at least £10,000, 
the whole cost of placing it in this appropriate chapel was 
about £1,000, — a great bargain and a fortunate preservation, 
the honor of which is due to Sir Brooke Boothby and Dean 
Proby. Lambert Lombard, a master of his art, probably 
executed the marvellous paintings on the glass, portraying 
personages connected with the abbey, or representing impor- 
tant events in the history of Christ. 

The chapter-house also has unique features, prominent 
among which is the approach through a vestibule extending 
from the north side of the choir, and like a stately and pecu- 
liar vaulted aisle lined by high and bold arcades. From this, a 
fine doorway with deep sides and exquisitely modelled pillars 
opens to the grand apartment, an elongated octagon in plan, 
surrounded by a richly arcaded base, beneath windows rising 
into the vaults, which spring from corbels on the piers and a 
cluster of slender columns in the centre. 



188 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

Here, as at Salisbury, there is no crypt, and there also are 
no cloisters. In place of the north porch that is so common, 
there is a large portal at the north end of the transept, which 
in beauty and elaborate carving has few rivals in the country. 

The monuments, except a few of recent date, do not show 
the magnificence found in some other churches. Of the many 
that were here before the Civil War, the fragments of only 
four exist. Of those erected since that period, are one to 
Dean Lancelot Addison (1703), the father of Joseph Addison, 
and one to Anna Seward (1809), in the nave ; and in the two 
aisles of the choir, one to Bishop Hacket (1670) who restored 
the cathedral after the siege, two recumbent figures by Chan- 
trey, of the daughters of Rev. Wm. Robinson (1812), another 
figure of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, a kneeling statue of 
Bishop Ryder, also by Chantrey, and two large, recent works. 
One of the last, a sarcophagus of Caen stone and colored mar- 
bles, commemorates Major Hodson, killed at Lucknow in 1858, 
and bears around its sides many detached figures illustrative 
of his campaigns. The other is for his father, Archdeacon 
Hodson, and contains four groups of sculpture cut in high re- 
lief and set behind an arcade in the wall. Both are noble 
monuments to noble men, and were designed by Mr. George 
Street. Numerous other recent memorials appear in the glass 
of the windows, and of those that are earlier, one of peculiar 
interest to the English-speaking world will be found in the 
east aisle of the south end of the transept ; it is a bust of Dr. 
Johnson. 

The library, in a room above the chapter-house, contains 
treasures gathered after the destruction during the Civil War, 
— among them Caxton's " Lyfe of King Arthur," and what is 
more precious, a manuscript of very early date, known as the 
« Gospels of St. Chad." 

Lichfield Cathedral, in addition to the general associations 
that it shares with other buildings of its class, is now notable 
on four accounts, — for its unique three spires, as well as its 
examples of the Decorated style ; for the disastrous siege it un- 
derwent in 1642-3, when it was fortified, defended, lost, and left 
almost a ruin, and for the heroic restoration that ensued from 



CHESTER. 189 

1661 to 1669 ; thirdly, for being one of the three prominent 
scenes of Wyatt's antics (in 1788) ; and lastly, in marked 
contrast with the latter, for the noble work since 1860, under 
the direction of Sir G G. Scott, that adds another glory to Old 
England. 

Chester a Cathedral is the first or last that Americans are 
apt to see. It was the first of very many churches in the Old 
World, which the writer has examined during several tours, and 
he has, with constant interest, watched the changes it has un- 
dergone since he first saw it ; for few cathedrals in the country 
have had greater. Years ago the deep-red sandstone of its 
outer walls was worn and furrowed by the wear of centuries ; 
its ornaments were crumbling into shapelessness, and its vener- 
able, indeed its almost shabby, form only suggested the times 
of its fairer youth. Even the interior was mutilated or un- 
finished. But the old place had a charm about it, that it not 
only never lost, but that has grown while pious justice has been 
slowly recreating the ancient shrine. Again made strong, and 
robed in its quaint beauty, it stands fitted for the enjoyment, 
use, and honor of many future generations. 

Chester was a Roman station of such great importance that 
it was called simply The Camp, — "Castrum" from which its 
familiar English name is derived. Remains of baths, pave- 
ments, public buildings, graves, and other works, besides coins, 
pottery, and bronzes, have been found on the site. The walls 
that represent the imperial rampart, and that stand on its foun- 
dations and show some of its masonry, still remain unbroken 
in their circuit of the well-known Roman square. The two 
streets, also Roman, crossing it at right angles, and dividing 
the enclosed area into four nearly equal parts, are now just as 
distinctly marked as when the Csesars ruled in Britain, although 
they are lined by the variety of buildings that a thrifty ancient 
city would require. Besides this suggestiveness they have an 
interest and quaintness unrivalled in the country and equalled 

1 See Wild, C, An Illustration of the Architecture of the Cathedral Church 
of Chester, 6 plates, 6 pp. text, etc., imp. 4°, London, 1813. The city has been 
more fully illustrated than the Cathedral. 



190 MIDLAND CATHEDEALS. 

in few places elsewhere ; and if the older domestic structures 
may not date earlier than the sixteenth or the seventeenth 
centuries, they yet are of great age for buildings of their class. 
An unusual number of them is preserved, and the local style 
is also happily illustrated by several modern buildings. 

The city was, according to tradition, founded by the Britons, 
but its civil history dates from the occupation by the Romans, 
which continued for four centuries (46 to 446). It was then 
British, with some interruption, until 828, when Egbert made 
it a part of England. Later it had its share of the ravages 
committed by the Danes, and of the fortunes of the Saxons until 
the Conquest, at which time it " contained 431 rateable houses." 
During the two ensuing centuries it was an important military 
border station, and a bulwark of offence and defence against 
the Welsh. In 1264, while the barons were opposing Henry 
III., the city was captured and held for him. Continuing to 
be involved in the successive conflicts in the country, it was 
again injured during the great Wars of the Roses, and twice 
during the Civil War was besieged, — in 1645, when, after dire 
privations and a stout resistance, it surrendered honorably to 
the Parliament (February 3, 1646), and in 1659, when it was 
retaken and once more surrendered. Again, at the Revolution 
in 1688, it was seized and was then held for James II., and 
finally, in 1745, was fortified to resist his representative, the 
last Pretender. All of these important periods left their mark 
on Chester. 

The religious history of the city extends far back into the 
Middle Ages, but its prominence may be said to date from 875. 
The monks of Hanbury then fled from the devastating Danes, 
and brought the shrine and relics of St. Werburgh or Werberga, 
to Chester, where the latter remained. She was one of the 
princely nuns of the seventh century, towards the end of which 
she died, and became the patron of the city that protected 
her remains in a Benedictine monastery. In 1075 the seat of 
the See of Lichfield was removed to this place, where it re- 
mained a few years ; but it was only in 1541, on the suppression 
of the monasteries, when Henry VIII. created six new Sees, 
that the abbatial church became a cathedral. The persecution 



CHESTER. 191 

under Mary visited the city, and there was trouble with the 
Puritans, but not much of general interest occurred until the 
Civil War, when the See, like others in the country, was abol- 
ished. Bishop Walton, famous for his Polyglot Bible, suc- 
ceeded in 1661, and was followed by Bishop Wilkins (1668- 
1672), one of the founders of the Royal Society, and Bishop 
Pearson (1673-1686), who, according to Burnet, was " in all 
respects the greatest divine of the age," and by others was 
considered " the most learned and distinguished bishop of the 
See, at any time," the honor of which has been well maintained 
by recent ecclesiastics. 

The walls of Chester, that, in changing substance, height, or 
detail, have remained until our time, invite us to a walk along 
the rare old promenade, almost two miles in length, upon their 
battlemented crest. It is reached by stone steps found at all 
the four gates of the city, one of which is placed midway on 
each side, and all of which are modern. Although of vari- 
ous dates since the Roman period, the masonry of the wall is 
chiefly of the Edwardian, and much of the top is modern. 
The southeastern range of wall extends between closely built 
houses, among or over which views are soon gained. Long 
ago the city outgrew its ancient limits, expanding into a large 
suburb that reaches half a mile eastward until the huge rail- 
way station has been included, together with extensive con- 
nected works occupying ground that was a kitchen garden 
some forty years since. One of the most notable objects, seen 
for centuries towards the east, was the large dark-red tower of 
St. John, the greater part of which fell several years ago, but 
the ancient body of the church as well as a grand north porch 
are still standing. At the southeast the wall descends from 
higher ground and bends towards the river Dee, and farther on 
is pierced by the South, or Bridge gate, standing near the water 
and the mills, which have, in changing form, been there almost 
since the Conquest. The bridge, of seven irregular stone 
arches, dates from 1280, but has of course undergone alter- 
ations. It replaces a much earlier wooden structure, that was 
often injured by floods and mediaeval Welshmen during their 
lively visits. West of the bridge the walk is carried upon 



192 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

heavy brackets around the ancient castle, — ancient, however, 
only in its history, site, and Norman keep, for nearly all of its 
extensive buildings are of modern date and style. A fine view 
is gained of the Grosvenor Bridge, completed in 1832, and 
consisting of a grand stone arch with a span of two hundred 
feet, said to have few rivals in the world. The west line of 
the wall, the longest and least winding reach of it, commands 
a wide outward view, and looks much more like an antique de- 
fensive work ; for a great deal of it rises directly from grassy 
banks and grounds, suggestive of a glacis and an area for mili- 
tary operations. On the other hand, first are seen the classic 
front of the Shire Hall, and over it the keep, or Caesar's Tower ; 
then, north of them and near by, other large modern buildings 
which are in castellated style, beyond which crowd streets and 
houses of the town. Between the wall and river is a broad, 
green, level field, laid out as a race-course (with a circuit of one 
mile and fifty yards), over which the open country and the 
Welsh hills become much more apparent. At the northwestern 
corner a spur of the wall extends down the bank to the large 
" Water Tower," one of the most picturesque parts of the 
works, where the dark, brown-red, crumbling sandstone is pro- 
fusely draped by deep-green luxuriant ivy. Across this corner 
the railway passes through an excavation spanned by two 
bridges carrying the walk ; but even such a necessity of modern 
life, incongruous as it seems, is not allowed to be a serious blem- 
ish, and the iron tracks with the swift trains on them really 
combine in the whole effect, and show that Roman, mediaeval, 
and existing Chester stands for no one period, but for all 
civilized time. The north range of the wall ascends to higher 
ground, and is more curious. Two quaint little, tower-like 
structures, " Pemberton's Parlor " and " Morgan's Mount," 
with their sheltered nooks and crumbling ornament are on it, 
and deep and closely below is a canal ; while at Northgatc, look- 
ing backward, is a fine view of the hills of Wales, seen down 
a long stretch of the wall itself. Still farther on, the " Abbey 
Green " shows a pleasant, open space along the inside of the 
wall, outside of which, in a deep cut, the canal continues its 
course. At the northeastern corner is one of the largest 



CHESTEK. 193 

towers, the Phoenix, where Charles I., on the 24th of Septem- 
ber, 1645, looked upon the battle that he lost at Rowton Moor. 
From this tower to the Eastgate the Roman masonry is par- 
ticularly noticeable near the base of the wall, although it is 
crowded by buildings of the suburb. 

From a quiet grass-ground and amid trees at the right, 
rise the simple massive walls and heavy central tower of St. 
Werberga's church, built of the red sandstone of their own 
Cheshire, pale or embrowned as sunshine or wet weather 
touches them, and showing by their worn or freshened lines 
that ancient piety has a perennial life in England. 

Tlie Cathedral is reached by a small street on the south, 
and by a wider opening at the west. Within a few years, old 
and shabby buildings on the north of the latter have been well 
replaced by others quite in harmony with the west front they 
adjoin. This front shows only a low, blackened gable, under 
which is a large window of eight days with an elaborate head, 
and a small door flanked by niches, all in Perpendicular, and, 
at the side, the base of a southwestern tower. In ground-plan 
the edifice is cruciform, but the north end of the transept is 
extremely small. Along this side there are cloisters, and very 
interesting relics of the conventual buildings, while the whole 
south side is bordered by open grass-ground and is in full view. 
A large part of the exterior shows fresh work in Runcorn stone, 
that is more durable than the old stone ; indeed, as the verger 
said, it may be good for two centuries. Except in a few places 
here and there, the surfaces and carvings are now smooth, but 
already on exposed parts they are tinted with lichens. 

The interior, it is safe to say, is now in better order than 
it has been since the Middle Ages, for its once cheerless 
whitewashed or unfinished space has been converted into a 
noble church. Its history begins with that of a Norman edi- 
fice which stood on the spot, as is shown by foundations of a 
rounded apse near the middle of the present choir, but almost 
every part existing above ground is later. In the lower por- 
tions of the nave, and south end of the transept, the style is 
Decorated ; the upper portions with the central tower are Per- 
pendicular, and the whole of the east part is Early English. 

13 



194 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

All the surfaces of the walls are cleaned, and show the sombre 
but effective color of the brown-red sandstone of which they 
are built, as also are the vaults of the aisles. The walls of the 
nave may not have proved strong enough for a stone ceiling, a 
part of the original design, and a barn-like timber roof took its 
place for many years, but recently has given way to an elabo- 
rately ribbed vaulting, made of oak and harmonious with fresh 
tints and good design. There is no triforium, but the windows 
of the clerestory are high. They have greenish glass, while in 
the windows of the aisles, nave, and choir, those of the east 
end, and the great west window, there is new good colored 
glass, most of which is ornamented with figures. Another of 
the marked changes has been the removal of the organ and 
screen that formerly almost blocked the view into the choir. A 
handsome open screen has been substituted for the old one, 
which has been placed beneath the north arch of the central 
tower and supports the organ, so that the two now nearly fill the 
space. The old screen is Renaissance, as is unusual in Eng- 
land, and is made of fine red stone, with large dark marble 
pillars, and solidly massed carved foliage. The south end of 
the transept, wider than the nave and nearly as long, was 
formerly separated from the body of the cathedral by a wall, 
and was used as a parish church. It was much injured, and 
daubed with the dingy wash of the eighteenth century, and is 
the last part to be cleaned. 

On Sunday afternoon, June 15, 1873, the writer heard Dean 
Howson preach an excellent sermon in the choir. On the next 
day the restoration was begun there. Work had been done in 
1844 and later, and something in 1855 upon the Lady Chapel, 
but more extensive operations, that included refinishing a great 
deal of the exterior, were then directed by Sir G. G. Scott, and 
have resulted in making the choir, even now, the best part of 
the edifice. Its vaulting has been colored in harmony with the 
reddish-brown walls, and stained glass gives richness to an 
effect made more imposing by the lofty and elaborately carved 
bishop's throne and numerous stalls. 

The Lady Chapel is three bays long, but projects only one 
bay beyond the present eastern end of the cathedral. Two of 



CHESTER. 195 

the bays opened to an extension of the choir-aisles, but the 
arches of one of the bays have been partly closed. Twenty 
years ago the chapel was redeemed from degradations of the 
whitewash age ; a pavement of marbles with encaustic tiles in 
panels has been laid ; a remarkable reredos of glass mosaic 
erected ; five lancet windows at the eastern end have been filled 
with painted glass designed by Scott ; and all the surfaces are 
toned, or glowing, with polychrome. Time has already touched 
the whole composition and given it a subdued effect. 

The monuments are not important, except one finished in 
1863 to Bishop Pearson (1686), who has been already men- 
tioned. It is a very elaborate work in Early Pointed style and 
of great beauty, shaped like an altar, on which lies a full-length 
figure of the bishop, and is made of Caen-stone, relieved by 
shafts of spar. Above the statue is a sumptuous canopy of 
brass and colored iron inlaid with agates, crystals, jaspers, 
and carnelians, and around the base beneath it are grouped 
heads of the twelve apostles, and angels bearing emblems. 
The whole composition forms a magnificent example of recent 
monumental art in England. 

The cloisters, consisting of four aisles in late Perpendicular 
style, were black and ruinous about twenty-five years ago. In 
1872-1873, the south aisle was rebuilt, and the manner in which 
bits of the almost perished mouldings were then made guides in 
replacing work destroyed is very curious and creditable. Time 
and dampness have preyed on the soft stone of the other aisles, 
that are still worn and aged-looking, but they are in better 
order than they were in former years. 

The chapter-house is entered from the eastern aisle through 
a fine doorway and an unusual square vestibule (30.4 by 27.4), 
that has three aisles, and a vaulting borne by six short pillars, 
all of which, as well as the chapter-house itself, are Early Eng- 
lish. Style and form indicate their otherwise uncertain date, 
for of the latter, says Mr. King, " no record of the construction 
has been discovered." Almost a double square in shape, and 
with three bays of vaulting, and triple lancet windows, the apart- 
ment has a charming picturesqueness, and a domestic snugness 
with its cheerful fire of coals, that well fit it to be the library, 



196 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

as it has been for many years. At the eastern end there is a 
group of five lancets filled with new, fine, yet sober glass, cov- 
ered with figures, or compositions, showing the history of the 
cathedral. Colored glass is, or will be, also placed in the other 
windows, harmonizing with the brown-red stone of the walls, 
and adding much to the attractive effect of this quiet, yet 
stately ideal home of Christian scholarship. 

Formerly two objects interesting to Americans were kept 
here ; but for safety, they have been hung high up beside the 
west window of the nave. They are two old, torn, faded flags, 
one with a large union on a blue ground, the other with a 
small union, on what seems to have been white, both of which 
are said to have been carried by the Cheshire regiment at Que- 
bec, and to have witnessed the death of General Wolfe before 
that city in 1750. Visitors were also once told that they were 
carried by these troops under the same, evidently undying hero 
at Bunker Hill (in 1775). 

Relics of the monastic buildings adjoin the cloisters, and are 
still very interesting. One of the most important portions 
spared is the refectory upon the northern side, now used for 
the King's Grammar School. Its size (originally 90 by 34 feet) 
has been reduced, and parts have been much altered, but the 
style, Early English, with Perpendicular applied, is well shown. 
A very rare feature (said to be one of the two line examples in 
the country) is the pulpit, a half square projecting at an angle 
from the wall, and having a rich corbel, pillars, and a canopy. 
In the wall is a stairway leading to it, and faced by a hand- 
some arcade that opens to the hall. Along the western side of 
the cloisters will be found an apartment like a crypt, that prob- 
ably formed a portion of the building used for storage and 
for entertainment. Over it there was formerly a story, that 
probably, from its position, was the dormitory of the monks. 
Towards the east, beside the chapter-house, a quaint and well- 
vaulted passage that led to parts destroyed, and also another 
curious room, arc still preserved. 

One of the strangest nooks about the whole cathedral was, 
or is, the way to the triforium, a gallery above it, the leads, and 
central tower. An odd, dark, turnpike-stair and passages con- 



CHESTER. 197 

nected with it might have delighted Mrs. Radcliffe, and the 
views outside of course are interesting. 

The domestic architecture of the city, already mentioned, is 
in its older styles and reproductions of them, almost as attrac- 
tive as are the military works. Giving a peculiar distinction 
to Chester, and yet of undetermined origin, are " The Rows," 
built along the four streets that radiate from the cross or cen- 
tre, and near it, — structures rare in England, and very curi- 
ous, — placed, as Albert Smith says, " so that the sidewalk lies 
right through the first-floor fronts of the houses," sometimes 
with a basement shop beneath, and always with the upper por- 
tion of the building covering them, supported upon posts, and 
thus forming a covered walk. In some degree they suggest 
much more imposing and extensive Italian arcades, found at 
Padua, for instance, or under more modern buildings at Turin. 
At Berne in Switzerland, are walks more like them, although of 
greater solidity and extent. But there is a quaintness, irregu- 
larity, and style in these old " Rows " that makes them Eng- 
lish. While some mediaeval traveller may have helped to intro- 
duce them, they probably owe their origin rather to the climate 
and the native fancy. Examples of the early domestic style of 
Cheshire are shown in some of the oldest houses, with their 
gabled fronts, projecting stories, carved frames filled in with 
plaster, and broad-shafted windows, of which the " Old Palace " 
of the Stanleys is thought to be the best, as well as the most 
ancient, — its date, carved upon the front, being 1591. The in- 
terior, although defaced, still shows some of the stateliness of 
its young days. Another house, called " Bishop Lloyd's," upon 
the " Rows," is very striking, and has a curiously carved front, 
of an earlier date than the 1615 placed on it. A smaller 
gabled house bearing the inscription, " God's Providence Is 
Mine Inheritance," 1652, is said to be the only one that 
escaped the plague in the seventeenth century. Of the new 
buildings in old style, the most prominent is the Grosvenor 
Hotel, which replaces the plain " Royal " known to those who 
visited the place many years ago. 

It is pleasant to congratulate the ancient city on evident 
thrift, and manifested regard for old monuments which show 



198 MIDLAND CATHEDRALS. 

so much of the various national architectural styles, from Ro- 
man times to our own. Long, and even more conspicuously, 
may the patriotism that influences the citizens rule in good old 
charming Chester. 

Manchester. In this very large and busy city, and veiled 
in its smoke, close by the even busier railway station, stands 
one of the least ancient minor English cathedrals, styled in 
Murray " a very fine parish church." If in size and general 
design it does suggest one, it can, with fairness, be called a 
superb example. Originally collegiate, built wholly since the 
fifteenth century began, and recently restored or decorated, it 
was as late as 1848 made the cathedral of the great See of 
Lancashire. One of its chief peculiarities is that it is the only 
English cathedral wholly in Perpendicular ; but it is not of 
sufficient size to show the capabilities of that style as the Early 
English is shown at Salisbury, or the Norman at Durham. 

TJie exterior, long and low, with a large tower at one end, 
rises from a gravelly churchyard of rather forlorn aspect, pre- 
senting elaborately battlemented and pinnacled walls built of 
a hard millstone grit of a light, yellowish color. All the work 
is in fine order, and shows much new facing, for it was com- 
pletely renovated not many years ago. A former tower was 
thought to have grown insecure, and was replaced by the fine 
existing, but differing tower, 137 feet high, designed by Mr. 
Holden. Of especial note also are the parapets above the 
clerestory, and the new exterior of the Jesus Chapel. 

TJie interior is irregularly square, presenting a nave with 
two aisles on each side, and a choir with a single aisle flanked 
by large chapels, but no transept. While the size is great, 
there is no effect of space, for the area is much encumbered by 
screens, galleries and pews, and as has already been said, a very 
large and splendid parish church is suggested. In the deco- 
ration there is the sumptuousness that would be looked for in 
such a wealthy city, and in arrangements for a congregation in 
the nave, and galleries built along the inner aisles, all the pro- 
vision that a wise piety would make amid a crowded population. 
Of architectural features there is a general design extending 



MANCHESTER. 199 

through both the nave and choir and showing a beautiful main 
arcade, a tall clerestory, an almost flat wooden roof, and no 
triforium. When the writer last saw the interior its coloring 
was more sober than it once was ; on the walls it was light, 
and on the double-pitched, ribbed ceiling of the nave there was 
a bluish tint relieved by dark hues on the timbers, in place of 
former polychrome and gilding that were almost excessive in 
amount. On minor parts of the edifice the ceilings arc flat, or 
have one pitch, and are ribbed, and decorated with elaborate 
bosses. A profusely gilded oaken rood-screen stands before 
the choir and harmonizes with it, for although its walls and 
roof are pale, its whole effect is quite gorgeous. Its stalls 
and screens, unusually fine, are delicately and elaborately 
carved, and the large organ and tiled pavement are rich. Less 
notable is the simple Lady Chapel, but the larger St. John's, or 
Derby, Chapel, that extends along the whole length of the north 
aisle of the choir is a fine example of Perpendicular, although 
it was not long ago restored, and both it and the Jesus Chapel 
on the other side should be examined. There is a small yet 
elegant octagonal chapter-house, but there are no cloisters. 

Among the monuments is a seated statue of Humphrey 
Chetham, placed in the north aisle of the choir. He was a 
manufacturer, who lived between 1580 and 1653, and founded 
the Chetham Hospital for training boys to business, and the 
Chetham Library, " now one of the best provincial libraries in 
England." Also of note is the monument to Bishop Stanley, 
who belonged to the great family so prominent in the world as 
well as in Lancashire, and who died in 1515. 

When the writer first attended service in this church, on a 
Sunday, an attractive part of the large congregation was a 
group of children from one of those English institutions, well 
recalled by the name of Chetham. The girls were dressed in 
blue set off by long white aprons, and the boys in long blue 
surtouts with silvery buttons. Old customs were also shown 
after service, when several ancient women were called up by 
list, and each of them received a loaf of bread. 

Manchester itself is chiefly an enormous demonstration of the 
growth of English wealth and manufacturing industry during 



200 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

the last hundred years, and its public buildings are as modern, 
— commensurate, however, with the importance of the city, and 
probably destined to become, centuries hence, representative 
monuments of our age. Unfortunately, they share with other 
objects around them the injury, at least in effect, done by ex- 
cessive smoke, which may thus give them full expression of a 
characteristic of the present time in England. Among these 
buildings there is one certainly to be mentioned, and to be seen 
by travellers, — the new Town Hall in Pointed style, that shows 
great variety in design and outline, and is one of the noblest 
modern civil structures of its kind and style, and an honor to 
Mr. Waterhouse, its architect, as well as to Manchester. 



THE NORTHEEN CATHEDEALS. 

York 1 has been important in church and state through 
many centuries, and is one of the most attractive cities in the 
country to persons of nearly every taste. Its walls, monastic 
ruins, grand cathedral, and quaint streets, illustrate the mili- 
tary, ecclesiastical, and domestic life of the nation in an un- 
rivalled manner ; its modern elegance and comfort are evident, 
yet not obtrusive ; and its central position among places or ob- 
jects of interest is convenient and notable. 

In the shades of the primeval British times, York seems 
to have been called Caer Ebranc, or Effioc, but in the clearer 
period of the Roman rule it was known as Eboracum, the im- 
portant station of the sixth and ninth legions, and a metropolis 
for three centuries after 124. Relics of the imperial occupation, 

1 Besides accounts in general works mentioned on page 111, see Browne, J., 
History of the Metropolitan Church of St. Peter's, York, with Plans, Engrav- 
ings, etc., royal 4°, London, 1847. — Poole, Rev. G. A., and J. W. Hcgall, 
Guide to York Cathedral, and its Antiquities, illustrated, small folio, York, 1850. 
— Wild, C, Twelve Perspective views, two ichnographic plates, and Historical 
Account, imp. 4°, London, 1809. — Halfpenny, J., Gothic Ornaments in Cathe- 
dral Church of York, 105 plates, imp. 4°, York, 1795. — St. Mary's Abbey, by 
Kev. C. Wellbeloved, plates, imp. folio, in Yetusta Monumenta (R. S. A.) vol. v., 
plates li.-lx. (1829). — For accounts of the city, etc., see Cave, H., Antiquities of, 
imp. 4°, London, 1818. — Drake F., Eboracum, folio, London, 1736. — Gent, T., 
Ancient and Modern History of, 8°, 1730. — Hargrove, W., History of, 3 vols., 
8°, York, 1818. — Torr, J., Antiquities of, 8°, York, 1719. 



YORK. 201 

unusually numerous, and though generally of small size, of 
great value, have been found from time to time until the pres- 
ent day, and include specimens of almost every kind of minor- 
Roman works or objects. It is thought that Eboracum had an 
octangular shape, measuring about 650 by 550 yards, and oc- 
cupied the higher ground east of the river Ouse, or the chief 
old part of the present city. Notable events of the Roman 
period distinguished it. Twice within its first ninety years the 
tribes of the North brought havoc to its gates. Severus, after 
his campaign against them, made it his home, where he died in 
210 or 211. In 288 it is said to have witnessed the proclama- 
tion of the admiral Carausius, as emperor, and from 304 to 
307 to have been the residence of Constantius Chlorus, em- 
peror of the West. At his death in the latter year, his son, 
the famous Constantine the Great, was in the city, and thus 
gave it associations with the presence of perhaps the most dis- 
tinguished Christian sovereign of ancient Rome. Well might 
the importance of the place where three of the emperors had 
lived, where one had died, and where a rival had been crowned, 
earn for Eboracum the title that it bore, of "Altera Roma." 

In 420, the Romans and the " Legio Sexta Victrix " were 
obliged, and forever, to leave York, to be followed by barba- 
rians, by Saxons, and a period like chaos, during which Christ- 
ianity, that had existed and had spread through northern Britain 
in the imperial times, struggled for existence. As early as 314, 
a bishop from a See established here was at a council held at 
Aries, but the succession in which he was placed seems un- 
certain. In 524 royalty is said to have given its influence to 
the recognition of church days, when King Arthur kept at York 
the first Christmas observed in England. As the history of the 
See continued, a notable event occurred on Easter, 627, when 
Paulinus, the distinguished missionary sent by Gregory the 
Great, converted and baptized King Edwin of Northumbria, 
and the same day was made bishop. It is stated (but not con- 
firmed by Wiltsch) that he was also made metropolitan, but 
this high dignity does not seem to have been confirmed in his 
successors until a little more than a century later. As formed 
in 678, the diocese extended from the Humber northward even 



202 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

into Scotland. Entering into a long rivalry with Canterbury, 
it was at length, in 1072, made subject, or second, to that dis- 
tinguished centre of ecclesiastical government. During the 
four and a half centuries then ended there were twenty-four 
bishops, the most famous of whom was St. John of Beverly 
(705-718). Archbishop Egbert (731-767) founded the library 
of the Minster, and gave books to Boniface, the great apostle 
to the Germans ; and the learned Alcuin made York during 
many years " one of the lights of Europe." Incursions by the 
Danes in the two ensuing centuries spread devastation through 
the city and the diocese, and the invasion of the Normans in 
1068 inflicted great calamities. These events, and the con- 
stant losses by time and war, are quite sufficient reasons for the 
almost utter disappearance of monumental relics of the whole 
period between the departure of the Romans and the Conquest. 
Inadequate as is an attempt to sketch on a single page the 
history of York through the past eight centuries, some of the 
notable events of which it has been the scene within that time 
may at least be mentioned. In 1082 it had so far recovered 
from disasters, that it contained 1,711 private houses, and 
Thomas of Bayeus (1070-1100), the first Norman archbishop, 
had repaired the cathedral, which he had found in ruins, and 
which, at a later date, he rebuilt. About 1090, one of those 
mediaeval episodes, an atrocious massacre of Jews, occurred, 
when nearly two thousand perished ; and forty-eight years 
afterward came another as characteristic, when the city was 
besieged by the Scots, and when the archbishop, Thurstan, al- 
though ill in bed, raised forces that completely routed them. 
Within two or three decades York became distinguished as the 
place where one of the first meetings of what could be called 
a Parliament assembled, and where also, in the cathedral, the 
king of Scotland with his lords and prelates owned the su- 
premacy of Henry II. and his successors, of whom several, 
from John to Richard II. resided frequently at York, or there 
met with Parliaments. The armies of the Edwards, in the great 
campaigns against the Scots, were also often in the city, and 
there was a great stir in 1328, when Edward III. was married 
to Philippa of Hainault. Festivities ensued for three weeks, 



YORK. 203 

and included an incident that showed the combative spirit of 
the times ; for a fight occurred between the English and the 
foreign escort of the bride, in which 242 of the former and 
527 of the latter are said to have been killed. York, led by 
its archbishop, rebelled against Henry IV. ; but little trouble 
then ensued, especially compared with what followed in the 
Wars of the Roses, when York, as the very garden of the 
white rose, was repeatedly the scene of various tribulations. 
In 1509 there was a peaceful act of note ; the printing press 
was set up near the Minster Yard. Five years later Thomas 
Wolsey was made the archbishop, but it is said that this famous 
cardinal was never here officially. At the Reformation, among 
some momentous changes, Robert Holgate, nominee of Henry 
VIII., for instance, it is said, in one morning surrendered sixty- 
seven manors to the king, all of them the property of the See, 
a portion of which, however, was recovered by Archbishop 
Heath, who followed him, and to whom York is much in- 
debted. So serious was the injury inflicted on the city by the 
suppression of the wealthy monasteries, that a revolt was cre- 
ated. No small damage to the cathedral was wrought by the 
Civil War, but since that time the history of the See as well as 
of the prelates is chiefly noted, according to Britton, for the 
noiseless tenor of its way along the quiet path of duty. 

During the last three centuries the civil history has been 
mainly that of an increasing, prosperous English city, not too 
much disturbed by trade, and usually a scene of peaceful inci- 
dents. Some of the chief of an opposite nature were so remote 
as to be connected with the campaign in and near York in 1644 
and 1645 between the Parliamentary and Royal forces. At 
that time the city was twice besieged, and finally was taken by 
the former, July 16, 1644, a fortnight after the battle at Long 
Marston Moor had been lost by the latter. Great damage done 
the walls was substantially repaired awhile after the Restora- 
tion, an event that gave much satisfaction in York, where the 
proclamation of Charles II. caused a brilliant demonstration. 

The city, itself a group of monuments illustrative of all 
this history, stands in the midst of a flat, agricultural, moder- 
ately wooded region, and is built on both banks of the small 



204 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

river Ouse, that is crossed by two bridges. Of the two divisions 
the more important, containing the most interesting buildings, 
is on the east side ; in the other is the immense new railway 
station, one of the best in the country out of London, and a 
true monument of the requirements and activity characteristic 
of the last half of this century. 

The ivalls extend around the city, interrupted only at two 
or three minor points, and at the river near the castle on the 
east side, where a canal, the Foss, makes a part of the line, 
along a great part of which there is a walk behind the battle- 
ments. Although the walls are not continuous, as at Chester, 
they have one decided superiority, in the preservation of their 
ancient gateways. Work is shown dating from the Norman 
period to that of the Tudors, together with renewals made after 
the two sieges and in recent times ; yet, notwithstanding the 
consequent changes, valuable evidence is left of mediaeval 
modes of defence. Magnesian limestone is the chief material 
used for the masonry, which has a pale, gray color, and is laid 
in blocks of medium size. At the east is the Red Tower, con- 
structed of bricks, from the hue of which its name is derived. 
The south division of the walls is remarkably complete and in- 
teresting, and probably shows their chief characteristics. Por- 
tions outside have buttresses and rounded bastions, and on the 
face inside arched recesses about two feet deep. From most 
of the exterior base slopes a steep bank, while on the top of 
the wall are broad blocks of stone laid to form a public walk 
four or five feet wide, along the inner side of which there is 
no rail, but the outer has a not very massive embrasured para- 
pet, low enough to allow a good view to persons who use the 
promenade. The works are far less formidable than those of 
the great French example at Carcassonne, and are, indeed, 
suggestive of police more than of military service ; but the 
Yorkshire men themselves were stalwart supplementary bul- 
warks when the old town had need of them. The eastern divi- 
sion of the walls is inspected better from the ground, but all 
the picturesque and curious ancient gates, about half a dozen 
in number, should be seen from every point, for collectively 
they are unrivalled in the country. 



YORK. 205 

The streets, although they show the inevitable changes of a 
growing city, are generally narrow or crooked, in the genuine 
mediaeval fashion, and are almost everywhere quaint. Stone- 
gate, leading southwest from the minster, is a good example, 
where thrift, cleanliness, and picturesqueness are combined. 
At the south end of the city is the large castle, dating from 
1068, and a distinguished place in history, but now chiefly 
marked by the modern county courts and prison it contains. 
Clifford's Tower, or the Keep, injured in the sieges, and in 
1684, when the interior was destroyed by the explosion of the 
powder magazine, is, however, now one of its oldest and most 
picturesque parts. 

The Abbey of St. Mary, represented by a ruin in a garden 
of great beauty, was magnificent and very large. Its church, 
371 feet long, and a beautiful example of Decorated, was fit to 
rival the cathedral, but from the suppression in 1540 to 1827, 
it was, with its connected buildings, shamefully treated. In 
the latter year the Yorkshire Philosophical Society took it in 
charge, and has deserved for many years the thanks of all who 
comprehend the value of such labor. Only the bases of the 
columns, the lower part of the west front, and the north aisle 
of the nave, remain. Besides these fragments are the gate- 
house, two or three early archways that gave entrance to the 
Abbey, and fragments of its other buildings, as well as of the 
strong wall by which they were enclosed. 

The Cathedral, the glory of this ancient city, and incom- 
parably the noblest object in it, is surrounded by streets, except 
upon the northern side, where there is a large area called the 
Deanery Gardens. From the usual approach an imposing view 
of the west front is gained, and on a tour around the edifice it 
soon shows, especially from the northeast, the dignity, majesty, 
and beauty of a church with no superior in Britain. 

An immense cross form, bold transept ends, two noble West- 
ern towers, a grander lantern at the centre, an east end with 
a window scarcely matched in the world, and, at one side, a 
chapter-house well worthy of it, — these are the features, ex- 
pressed in Early English, Decorated, and late Perpendicular 
combined, like differing notes of a grand chord, in one rich 



206 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

harmony. A neutral and varied coloring is given by the stones 
used, which were obtained in sundry places, and have here and 
there yellowish and brownish tints, but a not very dark-gray 
prevails. There is no other mediaeval western front in Eng- 
land that is as imposing and complete, and the characteristic 
English features are appropriately prominent in it, — three 
comparatively small portals, an immense, lofty, Pointed win- 
dow in the gabled centre, and, at the sides, square towers, with 
pinnacles crowning bold buttresses. All parts are covered with 
elaborate traceries or niches canopied, and the carvings are 
profuse and fine, but there are now few sculptured figures. 
Fragments of several exist, but most of the niches, says Brit- 
ton, were never occupied. The four great buttresses, so promi- 
nent on the French facades in Pointed style, are used here, and 
are designed with beauty and marked power and boldness. 

This grand church was created by the labors of four cen- 
turies, and the care of four that have succeeded them has kept 
it admirably preserved. A former edifice, rebuilt before 1100, 
and of course in the Norman style, formed a nucleus from 
which grew the vast and magnificent cathedral that we now 
see. Between 1154 and 1181 its choir and crypts were recon- 
structed on a larger scale, and the latter form the oldest por- 
tion of the existing edifice. Between 1215 and 1256, the Early 
English transept was erected, and the present nave, in Decor- 
ated, was substituted for the Norman between 1291 and 1345 
(the wooden vaulting dates since 1840). The choir was con- 
sequently rendered incongruous, and the existing noble one, in 
Perpendicular, was built between 1373 and 1400, except the 
extreme eastern portions, which are a little earlier. Still later 
(1405-1470), the three towers were added, and the grand 
design was, in the main, completed. 

The south end of the transept shows one of the most im- 
posing fronts ever built in the Early English style, with the 
tall lancet windows, arcades, and toothed ornaments peculiar 
to it, varied by a rarity in England, a rose window in the gable. 
Thorough repairs have been made on the stone-work, but so 
quickly is the mellowing touch of time shown on the new pieces 
needed that none of them look like patches. In 1882 they 




YORK CATHEDRAL, WEST FRONT, 



YORK. 207 

were conspicuous, and had a dark-yellowish brown or bronze 
tint, imparted by a process used to preserve them, — in which 
they had been " biled in ile," as an old verger told the writer. 
A year later their color was much toned down, and already 
blended with the tints of the old work. The north end, while 
in the same style, but of simpler design, is distinguished for the 
most gigantic group of lancet windows built in Early English, 
five in number, all 54 feet high, and as noble as they are im- 
mense. The east end of the edifice, containing the glorious 
window that will be described hereafter, is worthy of the west- 
ern front, and the exterior of the chapter-house at the northeast 
presents an unusually grand composition of its kind, the effect 
of which is increased when it is seen grouped with the choir 
and central tower. Light and shade strikingly change the as- 
pect of the whole exterior while the rays of the sun and clouds 
pursue each other over it, or when the moon is shining, or it is 
enveloped in dim night light. Imagination could hardly create 
a more exquisite ideal than a view the writer had one after- 
noon, when, athwart dark clouds, the lofty pale-gray pinnacled 
towers, and the roof of the transept, black at the south end and 
pale vivid green at the north, rose clear and bright with mar- 
vellous distinctness. Like the unearthly beauty of a vision the 
great minster glowed in the level rays of the western sun, and 
stood as if revealing to the eyes a symbol of that church not 
made by hands, eternal in the heavens. 

The interior is built throughout of a smooth, handsome, 
pale-buff stone of even tint and texture, and is brightened by 
abundant ancient colored glass. Its airiness and spaciousness 
are instantly impressive, for it has the effect as well as the re- 
ality of great length, breadth, and height ; the last of which is 
greater than usual in England, although less than it would be 
in France. Every arch has a broad sweeping span, and the 
uncommon width of the aisles gives breadth that makes good 
any that might have been added by chapels, of which there 
are none along the sides. Picturesqueness and some other 
features may be less marked than in others of the chief 
cathedrals ; but comparisons are hardly satisfactory, — York 
is itself and glorious. 



208 NORTHEEN CATHEDRALS. 

The whole of this cathedral is in plan and in design charac- 
teristically English, and is associated with the grandest part of 
the national history, of which, as well as of its art, it is a glori- 
ous monument. Its details are so numerous that they can be 
learned only by observation on the spot or by study of long 
monographs, but some of the chief features will be here noted. 
Several of them are shown in views taken from the centre of 
the edifice. At the end of the nave, and terminating the long 
vista of the striding arches of the main arcade, is seen the im- 
mense west window, with tall mullions and a lofty heading 
wreathed with mazy, flowing tracery. Between the stones that 
form them (every one of which is new, but of the ancient form), 
is rich glass, dating from about 1850, and in the walls upon 
each side are niches that are deep and elegant. This window 
and the eastern one at Carlisle are the two chief masterpieces 
of their kind in English art. All of the other windows in the 
nave are worthy companions, and all except those at the west 
end of the aisles have also colored glass, a great deal of which 
is ancient. Both the rich bosses and enlaced ribs of the vault- 
ing are also fine examples of English style. The view up into 
the unusually high central tower is admirable. There the vaults 
have even more complex ribs, in strong contrast with those 
generally found on the Continent. Towards the north are seen 
the " Five Sisters," as they call the lancets there, — lofty, grace- 
ful, and radiant with glass lightly colored. Towards the south 
another peculiar feature of the Early English is, perhaps, too 
evident ; the piers and the sides of the arches are striped by 
numerous polished Purbeck shafts, the dark lines of which are 
strongly marked against the pale-brown walls. Except in nar- 
row lancets in the clerestory, the windows throughout the tran- 
sept contain colored glass. At the south end the vaulting is of 
new dark oak, with grayish ribs darker than the grounds, and 
foliated bosses gilt upon vermilion. A few years ago the clere- 
story was rebuilt, for it had become badly cracked ; the walls 
had spread so that the roof was off of them in places, and they 
were unsafe. The great weight of the central tower has pushed 
the tops of the arcades towards the south, as they are now seen, 
but they are secure. Elsewhere throughout the church, it should 




Ib-tttiiTu Xittmrj he. rf' Tir* Ciakr+rvU- . 



(CATIHLIEIOIEAIL ©fflinBCIHU 

CHOU, LOOKING EAST. 



YORK. 209 

be added, the lines are plumb, or true. Beneath the tower and 
across the end of the vast choir is a magnificent stone screen, 
said to hare been built between 1475 and 1505. It is a solid 
wall pierced in the centre by one large portal, and elsewhere 
covered with profuse and exquisitely carved architectural work, 
and the statues of fifteen kings of England, down to Henry VI., 
placed in niches of as many compartments, into which the 
screen is divided. In the canopies above them are more than 
fifty smaller statues, and still higher are half-length figures 
of over forty angels. It would be difficult to find an ancient 
rood-screen, or jube*, that is superior. 

The choir, majestic and immense, is one of the great monu- 
ments of English mediaeval genius, piety, and art. It dates 
from 1380 to 1405, but there is much new work that reproduces 
the antique designs, and that was rendered necessary by the 
well known fire in 1829, by which the roof was burned and the 
walls were injured. The rood-screen and lofty, sumptuous stalls 
of dark oak enclose the western part, and a tall screen with a 
new reredos and elaborate open tracery and battlements divides 
it from a retro-choir, before which the presbytery is raised fif- 
teen steps above the floor of the rest of the choir. Almost the 
whole of the east end, 102 feet high and about 40 feet wide, is 
filled by the great window, which is 32 feet wide and 76 feet 
high. Its size is second only to the corresponding one at Glou- 
cester, which is 87 feet high, and makes it harmonize with the 
west window, already mentioned, which measures 30 by 54 
feet. The glass, like most of that throughout the choir, dates 
from the fifteenth century, but some of it may be a little 
earlier. White glass made in England is used for grounds 
occupied by colored figures, of which in the tracery in the 
head, above the spring of the great arch, there are, as the 
writer counted, about a hundred, rising in rank from saints 
and Bible personages to the angels, and Christ throned in 
Judgment. Between the mullions are seventy -two square com- 
partments, containing subjects from the Creation to the death 
of Absalom, and below a gallery that crosses the window there 
are thirty-six other subjects from the Apocalypse, besides nine 
at the base representing kings and ecclesiastics. There is a 

14 



210 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

narrow eastern or second transept placed about midway along 
the choir, and having at each end a window of enormous 
height. All of the choir is vaulted, the aisles with stone, and 
the great span in the clerestory with wood, as is sometimes the 
mode in England, and as is usual the ribs are enlaced, but here 
with more than common intricacy. 

The monuments are interesting, although many of the older 
were demolished during the Civil War. A detached and cano- 
pied work in Early English commemorates Archbishop Gray 
(1255), another in a recess is for Archbishop Savage (1507), 
and another similar one for Archbishop Greenfield (1315), all 
of which are still fine. Besides these works there are several 
new memorial windows, and among the most recent objects 
is a rich canopied tomb. 

The chapter-house, with a stately aisle that leads to it, is not 
surpassed in England, and both are fine examples of the Decor- 
ated style. The aisle, that turns at a right angle towards the 
east, was, twenty years ago (and is now, the writer thinks), in 
its original condition, so far as can be, — stripped of the dirty 
wash of the last century, and showing the remains of poly- 
chrome upon the walls, while ancient glass in the tall windows 
imparts a sombre effect to the delightful architecture. The 
chapter-house itself, octagonal and groined, but without a cen- 
tral pillar, is designed with an arcade around the base and lofty 
windows filling the sides and giving an airy, light, and charm- 
ing effect. All the windows have stained glass, the rich tints 
of which relieve the solemnity of the other coloring. Clean, 
smooth stone with a light buff-brownish surface forms the 
walls, but is varied by Purbeck marble in slender shafts bear- 
ing carved canopies on the arcades, and making stripes of too 
much prominence. Enamelled tiles, chiefly yellow or deep- 
brown (the former prevailing), make the pavement in keeping 
with the coloring on the graceful vaults, on which numerous 
small figures are painted on a background of pale-bluish gray, 
relieved by similar but darker tints on the ribs, and red and 
blue lines in their hollows. 

The crypt, as already stated, is the oldest part of the cathe- 
dral, and although dark and damp, and not as imposing as the 



YORK. 211 

crypts at Canterbury or Glasgow, is very interesting and exten- 
sive ; for it is almost as long as the choir, and contains curious 
work, the earliest of which is a piece of masonry laid in the 
herring-bone manner, thought to be a part of the side of the 
early Saxon church. Otherwise the structure is Norman, hav- 
ing a vault supported by round, varied pillars, only five and a 
half feet high (four of which are particularly curious), and by 
semi-circular arches. Strange as it seems, important portions 
of the crypt were filled with earth and were forgotten for seve- 
ral centuries, and even now the place is so dark that it must 
be visited by artificial light. 

The central tower commands a wide and very pleasant view 
from its top, gained after traversing a turnpike stair at the 
southwestern corner of the transept, and thence a path along 
the parapet to the tower. On that the low-pitched, leaded roof 
is bordered by ashy-gray battlements, and although the stone 
composing them looks pale and worn, it is kept in good order. 
The city, seen in all directions, reaches chiefly towards the 
south and west. Beyond it stretches a green rural country, 
slightly undulating, bounded east and west by ranges of low- 
looking hills, and north and south by a low horizon. 

The cathedral church of York is not only a glorious monu- 
ment of history and art, and a museum of archaeology, but 
also, like the other great seats of the Church of England, is 
still more imposing as the home of a strong, living faith. Its 
services, as the writer has repeatedly found, show that people 
of all sorts make up the congregation, and, in contrast with 
the usual fact in France, there are many men, both young and 
middle-aged. Hope for the future, as well as present good, 
was evident. The poetry and glory of religion gave its earnest 
prose a radiant beauty such as seldom elsewhere can invest it. 
Souls that would not feel the charm and meaning of the scene 
beneath those stately arches would lose one of the most stir- 
ring, exquisite effects, even as mere art, that the wide world 
has known. When on a Sunday evening the majestic music of 
the organ sounds like voices of archangels through the mighty 
minster, and the noblest notes of praise that man can offer the 
Creator of all beauty, ring from vault to vault, the ecstatic tones 



212 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

indeed come like a revelation of those harmonies that shall be 
heard among the heavenly choirs when mortal ears are closed 
forever. 

Ripon, a quaint old town in Yorkshire, contains one of the 
minor cathedrals, but one, like all others, with a general and 
special interest. The establishment of Christianity here dates 
from at least the middle of the seventh century, when a monas- 
tery had been founded by the monks of Melrose. This insti- 
tution grew, and had a life of about three centuries, at the end 
of which the church was burned in one of the forays of that 
dreary period. It was then rebuilt, and was made collegiate, 
and thus continued until 1836, when it became a cathedral. 
Of nearly all this long time the existing cross-shaped structure 
with three low towers, is a representative. Its crypt is Saxon, 
portions of the chapter-house are Norman, the transept and 
portions of the choir and nave are Transition (1154-1181), the 
west front is Early English, scattered parts are Perpendicular, 
and since 1862 there has been an extensive restoration directed 
by Sir G. G. Scott. 

The exterior is simple, massive, and not very high. Form- 
erly its three towers had tall wooden spires, the largest of 
which fell, and the others were removed, so that the towers, 
now without their intended finish, seem too low. The west front 
is a large example of the Early English style, showing the three 
small English doors, a central gable 103 feet high, and two 
square towers with pinnacles but seven feet higher. Shallow 
buttresses, four rows of arcades, and two groups of windows, 
each consisting of five lancets, form its other chief features, 
with which also might be included much new stone-work found 
here, as it is on all parts of the edifice. 

The interior presents a nave, restored of late, with a tall 
clerestory, but no triforium (except at the west end), and flat, 
oaken-timbered roofs. Its width, 87 feet, is greater in propor- 
tion to its length than it is in any other nave in England. Two 
Norman and two Pointed arches bear the central tower, and, 
together with the choir, show the mixed styles in the building. 
Some early work, panelled wooden roofs, and a good deal of 



RIPON. 213 

restoration, are noticeable in the transept ; while in the choir, 
entered through a screen nineteen feet high, — a rich exam- 
ple of Perpendicular dating from about 1460, — will be found 
a low triforium and clerestory, and a recent wooden vault of 
sharply-pointed arches in Decorated, ornamented with gold and 
colors. Lofty and elaborate canopies rise above the stalls, that 
date from the last decades of the fifteenth century, and geomet- 
rical tracery fills the great east window, which, in the Eng- 
lish manner, is nearly as large as the end of the choir. Although 
the chapter-house is small, it is not unimportant, as it contains 
interesting early work. 

The crypt, however, is far superior in this respect, for if one 
of the rudest, it is one of the oldest and most curious in the 
country. " It is," says Mr. R. J. King, " the most perfect ex- 
isting relic of the first age of Christianity in Yorkshire, and 
as such cannot but be regarded with the utmost interest and 
veneration." This peculiar crypt, and one similar at Hexham, 
he adds, belong " to a period so remote, and are connected with 
local rituals and observances so little known to us, that it is 
impossible to ascertain their original purpose with certainty." 
Utterly unlike the usual form of crypt, it does not reveal long 
aisles with ponderous vaults and piers, but dark and narrow 
passages, stone-walled and arched, and a small chapel of a 
similar construction, all now dim and strange enough to well 
illustrate the obscure age of St. Wilfrid. Tradition says that 
he was born near Ripon, that in 652 he went on a pilgrimage 
to Rome, and subsequently was a missionary in Northumbria, 
and a bishop there at Hexham. The chief passage in this 
crypt, about forty-five feet long, leads to the chapel, that was 
dedicated to the " Holy and Undivided Trinity," says Winkle. 
When the saint examined Rome he must have learned something 
of the Christian catacombs that are so wonderful in character 
as well as history ; and it seems as if he, amid the dismal tur- 
moil of the British wilds in his time, sought a refuge like those 
that the persecuted early saints and martyrs found. There is 
no tufa here in which to build the galleries and chapel, and 
make them like the Roman, but the resemblance is yet strik- 
ing. A curious funnel-like aperture on the left of the chapel 



214 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

called St. Wilfrid's Needle, has occasioned various conjectures. 
Another portion of the crypt, extremely early, and constructed 
in the usual form, was, until 1866, an ossuary, of a kind still 
found in various places on the continent, where human bones 
were ranged upon the walls. Since this date the bones hero 
have been buried. 

Among minor objects the monuments are not of special 
note, and are not numerous. Some colored glass of the four- 
teenth century is, however, preserved, and will be found to be 
interesting. ' 

Carlisle. 1 Caer-Luil, " the city of Luil," was an ancient 
British place, named, it is said, from its founder. The Ro- 
mans called it Luguvallum, and near it had a station on the 
wall across the island, where articles that prove their presence 
have from time to time been found. From its foundation, it 
was an important border-town, and bore the brunt of warfare 
that this fact occasioned. Ruined by the Scots, and probably 
again destroyed soon after the departure of the Romans, it was 
demolished by the Danes about 875, and was not rebuilt until 
near 1092, when William II. garrisoned a castle that he had 
constructed here. David, king of Scotland, held it several years 
in the next century, and then vicissitudes and several sieges 
followed, until at length, in 1217, the English obtained posses- 
sion of it. Henry II. gave the city its earliest charter, and 
civil affairs became more prominent, while military events con- 
tinued to be often stirring. Even the sweeping mediaeval fires 
were not escaped, — one of them, in 1292, destroying the records 
and a large part of the buildings. During the next four cen- 
turies the history of Carlisle abounded in recitals of trials by 
war or pestilence, and only on the union of the kingdoms was 
there a respite. In 1644, 1645, and 1648, the city was as- 
sailed by the rigors of the Civil War, and two years later a 
famine added other horrors. Again, in 1745, the Rebellion 

1 See Billings, R. W., Architectural Illustrations, History and Description of 
Carlisle Cathedral, and Illustrations of Geometrical Tracery from the panelling 
belonging to do., 2 vols., 65 plates, London, 1840-42. 

The writer's copy is extended by extra illustrations. 



CAKLISLE. 215 

occasioned a siege, followed on November 15 by surrender 
to the young Pretender, and soon afterwards recapture by the 
Royal forces. 

The castle, which has been a scene of a great deal of this 
change and turmoil, stands on a slightly elevated mound of 
earth and rock at the north end of the town. Its walls, — built 
of different sorts of stones, of which the larger part are red, 
so that they have a motley look, — are extensive, and show large 
embrasures and flat buttresses. The entrance is across a nar- 
row bridge and through a low and gloomy archway that retains 
its old portcullis, and opens to a large courtyard surrounded 
by modern barracks and the buildings needed for a garrison. 
Another archway opens to an inner court, where stands the 
square, red-sandstone keep, thought to date from the time of 
William Rufus. Associations with events from his reign to 
that of Victoria gather around the place, and to some extent 
are vividly illustrated by the variety of works combined in the 
old fortress. 1 

The religious history of the city and surrounding region 
dates from the early centuries, and is connected with that of 
the Sees of Durham, Lindisfarne, or Chester-le-Street, in the 
jurisdiction of which they were comprised until 1133, when a 
new See was formed, with its seat at Carlisle. Since that date 
it has retained the honor, and if the daily services of centuries 
have been attended by few unusual incidents, they have ac- 
complished much of their intent. 

The Cathedral still retains some work of the early part of 
the twelfth century, but dates of the changes throughout the 
edifice have been rendered uncertain, owing to the destruction 
of records in the numerous sieges. Accordingly, it may be 
sufficient to describe the building as it stands. It is a portion 
only, but a large one, and " the wonder is," says Mr. Billings, 
" that exposed as it was so often to the ravages of war, so 
much remains." The original Norman church stood until 1292, 
when the north transept and the choir were burned, but they 
were rebuilt some decades later, and remain. The narrow 

1 The writer has also described this castle in his " Lands of Scott" (p. 146), 
and the cathedral (p. 174). 



216 NOETHERN CATHEDRALS. 

nave, except two bays, stood until 1645, when Carlisle was 
surrendered to the Parliamentary army, and it observed one 
of the terms of capitulation — " that no church should be de- 
faced " — by pulling down a large part of the nave, besides 
destroying the cloisters, chapter-house, and other buildings. 
Afterwards the materials were used for military purposes, or, 
as Sir Walter Scott says in his Border Antiquities, " to con- 
struct a receptacle for the sanguinary agents of civil strife and 
discord." 

The exterior of the cathedral is built chiefly of red sand- 
stone. When the writer first saw it, some parts were crumb- 
ling and decayed, but an extensive and much-needed restoration 
was then being made. Six years later nearly all the surfaces 
and carvings were fresh, and of a light ashen reddish tint, 
while a dozen years afterwards the soft stone showed wear by 
the weather. 

The interior is decidedly superior, but its interest, or beauty, 
is chiefly in the choir. In the two remaining bays of the nave, 
and in the short and narrow south end of the transept, are ex- 
amples of the simple, heavy Norman style of the early edifice, 
chiefly remarkable, perhaps, for showing how the weight of the 
central tower, not a high one, has caused its piers to sink 
so much that the aisle arches joined to it are crushed in a 
curious manner. 

The choir, a fine and peculiar one, dates from the last half 
of the fourteenth century, but was injured and restored a few 
years after its completion, and the central tower above the roof 
was then rebuilt. All parts, however, had to bear a heavy 
share of mutilation in the age of cold blood at the middle of 
the eighteenth century, when misguided zeal, though of a fash- 
ion different from that which wrecked the nave, did no small 
damage to the ancient work. Between 1853 and 1857 exten- 
sive restorations were made under the direction of Mr. Ewan 
Christian, that give due effect to the design, in which the walls 
and windows of the aisles are Early English, and portions of 
the arcade are early, and the other parts late, Decorated. Of 
notable features, the most peculiar is the round barrel vault of 
wood, a reproduction of an ancient one " improved " almost to 




CAP LISLE -EAST END OF THE CATHEDRAL. 



CARLISLE. 217 

death in 1764. It is spanned by ribs, and is crossed at a right 
angle by others that form squares. But the feature of the 
greatest beauty, — one that has perhaps no rival elsewhere, — 
is the immense east window, shown in the plate annexed. It is, 
says Rickman, " one of the finest, if not the finest, Decorated 
window in the kingdom," and is of nearly the same date as 
the superb west window in York Minster (1291-1380), adds 
Mr. Billings. Mr. King thinks it is later (1363-1395). While, 
however, the fourteenth century design is shown, the actual 
fabric is new, for the stone-work is a recent and careful repro- 
duction. The upper part, says Mr. Fergusson, exhibits " the 
most beautiful design for window tracery in the world," which 
is filled with glass dating " from the reign of Richard IT., and 
representing the Resurrection, the Last Judgment, and the 
New Jerusalem." In the lower lights, the glass, with subjects 
from the life of our Lord, is a memorial of Bishop Percy (1856), 
placed there in 1861. 

TJie general view of the choir, if the one great view of this 
fragmentary cathedral, is one worthy to compare with any 
other in the country. Differing from all, it gives marked 
evidence that no church of its class can be unseen by those 
who wish to know the wonderful variety that the Pointed 
styles can form and show. There is more color than is usual 
in England, but the dignity of the interior is not thus im- 
paired. Against the stone-work of light ashen red, suggest- 
ing that at Worcester toned down, is contrasted the surface 
of the lofty arch of the great vault, blue, profusely studded 
with gold stars relieved by light tints and gilding on the ribs. 
Extremely dark oak in the lofty stalls, superb with elaborate 
open-work and carving, forms an effective base ; and the organ 
case, filling the arch beneath the tower, and gorgeous with 
new polychrome, makes a due counterpart in brilliancy to the 
east window. Yet, rich as are these hues, they form but 
minor tones of setting for that great masterpiece, radiant with 
color, and beautiful with the transcendent grace of its vast 
maze of tracery. 

Travellers and architects will do well, indeed, to visit 
Carlisle. 



218 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

Newcastle. The church of St. Nicholas, which is to be the 
seat of one of the newest Sees in England, is a cruciform build- 
ing with four bays in both nave and choir, and two bays in 
each end of the transept. It dates, some say, from 1359, 
and stands on ground sloping towards the castle, close by the 
enormous viaduct that strides across the Tyne into the busy, 
smoky, modern, and yet ancient town. On two sides of it is a 
burial ground, and before the west front is a wide and much 
travelled street. Few of such flowers, shrubs, and trees as 
elsewhere in the country spread a grace around cathedrals, are 
found here, and yet they are not wholly absent. 

The exterior of the edifice, the smallest and simplest of 
English cathedrals, is low and plain, and of course is dingy. 
Its chief feature is a large square tower that bears the com- 
mon English group of pinnacles; but they are very tall, and 
from those at the corners, in a manner rarely seen, spring 
flying buttresses, that bear a little tower and spire above the 
centre, and thus form a sort of crown. A good story is told 
of its preservation during the siege sustained by Newcastle 
in 1644, when the Scottish general outside demanded the im- 
mediate surrender of the city keys, and said that if they were 
not sent he would destroy the tower. The mayor put the 
chief Scotch prisoners in the crown and answered, " our ene- 
mies shall either preserve it, or be buried in its ruins," — 
logic that was conclusive. 

The interior -shows two ranges of low arches and small pil- 
lars widely spaced, supporting a low clerestory, with windows 
that have almost flat heads, and roofs of timber, dark and 
double-pitched. There is no triforium. A large pointed win- 
dow containing colored glass fills the east end of the choir, and 
there is also colored glass at the east end of the aisles, in a 
pointed window at the south end of the transept, and in a 
smaller and simpler one at the other end. While there is no 
great architectural display, there is good evidence of a desire 
to provide for a large congregation, by arranging pews through- 
out the building. The monuments, more numerous than is 
usual, are chiefly mural, and some of them are elaborate, but 
all are dirty. In 1783, when one of the " improvements " of 



NEWCASTLE. 219 

that age occurred, great havoc was committed, and several 
interesting old memorials were destroyed. 

TJie castle 1 is superior to the cathedral, as an important 
monument of the long history of the town, the growth of 
which has effaced the most ancient works. The Romans oc- 
cupied the place and called it Pons (Elii, from a bridge built 
by the Emperor Hadrian, foundations of the piers of which 
were found in 1775, when the existing bridge was undertaken. 
Near the church of St. Nicholas stood the second station on 
the great Wall (p. 32), represented by a tower as late as 
1796, but which has now disappeared, like all traces of the 
rampart, leaving among the scanty relics of this once impor- 
tant place, two statues and sundry small objects that are stored 
in the museum. Newcastle, as a border city, has frequently, 
until recent times, been visited by war. In 1068 it tried to 
withstand William the Conqueror, but he took it, and almost 
utterly destroyed it. His son Robert, a dozen years afterwards, 
built a stronghold, called, to distinguish it from the perhaps 
existing castmm, the New Castle. In the reign of Edward I. 
the town was strongly fortified, and the castle, covering more 
than three acres, had walls that averaged fully three yards in 
thickness. At length, after much hard military service, it was 
made a prison, and still later a large portion was pulled down, 
and replaced by public buildings. One of the few parts spared 
is the now very shabby, blackened, ancient gateway that opens 
to a nest of dirty houses, and near these, but exposed on at least 
two sides, is another structure, the most important portion of 
the mediaeval works, the great Norman keep, still defiant of 
war, change, and the elements. Its broad and high square 
form is strengthened at the corrfcrs by wide but shallow 
projections like turrets. Few windows pierce the extremely 
massive walls, which are built of flat stones, now much worn, 
laid in courses and crowned by restored battlements and a 
nearly level modern roof made of stones that are carefully 
cemented. On all parts a pall of black coal soot is spread. 

The entrance is by a long, straight, external stair, that leads 
to a renewed Norman portal, and thence to the Great Hall, on 

1 See Vetusta Monumenta, vol. v., text, and plates 10-18. 



220 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

the main floor, a square apartment with a very high-arched top. 
Built in the walls are narrow rooms and passages, and in two 
corners there are turnpike-stairs, about six feet in width, that 
lead from base to roof. Of the minor rooms, one contains a 
Norman fireplace, and another has an opening to the well. 
Below the Great Hall is a low apartment, used as a library and 
a place for meetings by the Newcastle Antiquarian Society, by 
which the Keep, the property of the Corporation, is maintained. 
Still lower, reached by an odd, crooked stair, is a dark, smutty 
hall, with vaults supported by a central pillar. In all these 
rooms are placed a large collection of antiquities, most of them 
Roman altars, carvings, minor objects, and inscriptions, chiefly 
found in Northumberland, and which now repose where the 
light is insufficient and the smut excessive. From the roof 
there is a wide and good view around the extensive town and on 
the river ; and it also includes a great deal of dark smoke. 

Durham presents from the railway station the noblest view 
of its kind in England. From high land there the ground 
slopes steeply in the foreground to the river Wear, the valley 
of which is filled with the houses of the city. Beyond, and 
over them, precipitously rise high, rocky, or tree-clad banks, 
and, along their extended crest, the vast and wonderfully pic- 
turesque walls of the embattled castle, and the tower-crowned 
cathedral ; while behind these gray and venerable monuments, 
and far into the hazy distance of the background, stretch the 
verdant Northumbrian hills. In all the world there are few 
such majestic groups of mediaeval works so nobly placed. 

Bun-Holme, a hill and river island, took this Saxon name, 
it has been thought, from the peninsula it occupies. The Nor- 
mans called it Duresme, and changes made the word Durham. 
Its celebrity began about 995, when the monks of the Holy 
Island, Lindisfarne, were fleeing from the Danes and seeking 
a secure place for themselves and the remains of their great 
patron, St. Cuthbert. He had been, from 685 to 688. the bishop 
of the See founded in 635 at that remote and curious place, 
and his rigorous monastic life, and active missionary labors 
among a people then half heathen, had shown a character 



DURHAM. 221 

that had caused him to be canonized. His body was laid near 
the altar of the church on the island, and legends, of the early 
mediaeval sort, describe the manner in which it was afterwards 
carried thence and enshrined at Durham. In 10G9, William 
the Conqueror came with terrible destruction, laying waste the 
country from York to the Tyne. All the inhabitants of Dur- 
ham fled at his approach, and four months later returned, but 
to endure an awful famine. Meanwhile the body of St. Cuth- 
bert was once more laid in the church at Lindisfarne, again to 
be brought back when peace was restored. In 1072 the castle 
was begun, where the Prince-Bishop was to dwell upon the 
northern border of the realm — a " priest who bore alike the 
sword and the pastoral staff," who, " looked down from his 
fortified height on a flock which he had to guard no less 
against worldly than against ghostly foes " (King). On August 
2, 1093, William of St. Carileph, the second Norman bishop, 
laid the foundation of the cathedral. The two great edifices 
were to stand beside each other for eight centuries, and at the 
end of that long period to be as strong as ever, and more beau- 
tiful, and to be homes of thought and faith more precious, and 
with elements of more vitality, than were known when the 
Normans founded them upon the enduring rock. 

The Cathedral 1 seems to have been built as rapidly as its 
immense extent, the means available, or the industry of the 
monks established around it, would permit, and their labors 
were important and efficient. Construction was carried on 
from eastward. In two years it had reached the transept ; in 
four years more the nave ; between 1099 and 1128 the nave 
was built, and then the western towers. By 1143 the chapter- 
house and a part of the cloisters were completed, and in the 
last half of the century the Galilee at the west end, one of the 
most remarkable parts of the edifice, used as a Lady Chapel in 
a very unusual position. The Norman church, thus finished, 
was, however, changed or received additions. In the thirteenth 

1 See Billings, R. W., Architectural Illustrations and Description of the 
Cathedral Church at Durham, 4°, 75 plates, London, 1843. The writer's copy 
has many extra illustrations. He has also described the Cathedral in a chapter 
on " Harold the Dauntless," in his " Lands of Scott," pp. 126-128. 



222 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

century an eastern transept, or end, called the chapel of "Nine 
Altars," was built in Early English, forming one of the great 
peculiarities at Durham, and although much larger, suggesting 
in some ways the " New Building " at Peterborough. In the 
same century the central tower was altered, and early in the 
next, the cloisters were completed, as also was the dormitory 
for the monks, — now used for the library, and one of the most 
interesting of these great apartments still preserved. 

A large part of the cathedral is in Norman style, of which 
it is an unsurpassed example. With little injury, it stood amid 
the turmoil of the Middle Ages, and the dangers of the Civil 
War, to be the victim of James Wyatt and the ignorance of 
the churchwardens in the last two decades of the eighteenth 
century. Thirty thousand pounds were squandered in mutila- 
tions that might have rejoiced the ghosts of all the meanest 
zealots in the whole north country, and that roused John Car- 
ter and the friends of art and England to stop the barbarians. 
The character of much old work on the exterior, and half of 
the extraordinary chapter-house had been destroyed, but much 
of the interior, and the Galilee were saved.- Afterwards some 
minor work was done at various dates, and then, in 1859, and 
later, Sir G. G. Scott directed repairs and restorations, during 
which many rich objects were added, and great changes were 
made throughout the interior, leaving it not only unimpaired but 
wonderfully improved. 

Certainly with this interior, a masterpiece of early English 
art, with the unique Galilee, the " Nine Altars," the minor or 
monastic buildings, and the grand site, there are peculiarities 
unusual in number and character, as well as distinction and 
interest, grouped in the cathedral of St. Cuthbert. 

The exterior, as well as the interior, is built of a sandstone 
that is neither strong nor close-grained, and is everywhere dis- 
tinctly marked by wavy lines that mix light yellowish-brown, 
the chief tint, with a plain, pale-gray. Where the exposure 
has been longer, russet-brown and a dull-yellow are mixed with 
an earthy gray, and the coloring is still further varied by a 
great deal of yellow on the south part of the transept. All the 
central tower, the upper parts of the two western towers, and 




DURHAM CATHEDRAL-THE NAVE. 



DURHAM. 223 

several window-casings in the nave, show new work, but this 
has already gained a grayish tone, so that, in this respect, it is 
not too much contrasted with the old stone, which in mam- 
other places has worn surfaces. 

Long and lofty in form, austere and massive in its Norman 
style, crowned by three great towers, the venerable church 
stands in calm strength and majesty on its high base of rock, 
above a zone of fresh and graceful tree-tops, that with their 
bright waving green relieve its sombre tints, and show by their 
marked contrast its bold and immovable grand walls. Far in 
the sky the traceried towers rise like the symbols of a faith 
eternal, toned and warmed by light that comes out from the 
clouds or the serenity above them. The wild, stern, early ages 
with their ponderous art, the long succeeding centuries with 
their established order, and the present, with its consecrated 
labor and perennial faith, are all shown clearly by the varied 
stones of this great monument, of the material and spiritual 
growth of England, that looks from its cliff-like throne far 
over the green hills of Northumberland. 

The interior is now opened so that the whole length, except 
the Galilee, (411 feet), is shown at once, with an effect not 
only of grandeur, and of a strength that seems eternal, but 
also of refinement and magnificence. All parts are in perfect 
order, so that the power and Dorian simplicity of Norman 
times and art, appear, as they indeed are, inseparable, though 
remote, from present life with its peculiar qualities and greater 
resources. In 1871 the writer had the pleasure of seeing a 
beginning made in the removal of a brownish mud tint put on 
early in this century, a good work since completed, leaving the 
surface of clean stone. Some of it is worn, and none of it is 
very smooth, yet its unevenness is well adapted to the archi- 
tecture, as also is its color, light ashy-gray, or reddish-brown, 
and darker than is usual in cathedrals. In 1883 new colored 
glass had been put in the great west window, and in the win- 
dows of the aisles, giving much richness to the light and 
effect. 

The nave, one of the most ancient in the country, hardly 
rivalled there in impressiveness, indeed with a sublimity found 



224 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

in itself alone, presents a ponderous arcade, rising from a pave- 
ment of common stones to an uncommon height. Beyond the 
west end its piers are giants ; first, one of them clustered, cover- 
ing 116 square feet, then one round, covering 64 feet, and fur- 
rowed with deeply cut curious flutings or zigzag ornament. 
They bear a high triforium, a very low clerestory crowded far 
up between the groins, and a vault with huge ribs, which, with 
the arch-mouldings, have an unusual amount of ornament. 
Effect in the design is chiefly given by these features, for none 
of the windows are large, and their heads, some of which are 
slightly pointed, have simple tracery. 

The Galilee, or Lady Chapel, should be visited before the 
eastern portions of the church. It is unique and very curious, 
oblong in shape, (48 by 76.6), and built across the western 
front, with a near view of which, indeed, it interferes. Three 
rows of clustered pillars, four in each, stretch north and south, 
and bear rich arches, plain walls, and low-pitched modern roofs. 
In the design, — except in the windows, which are later, — the 
Norman style, affected by the reaction characterizing Early 
English, is shown, and its lightness is remarkably contrasted 
with the cyclopean massiveness of the older work. Bare, brown- 
ish stone now gives a prevailing hue to the chapel, but in medi- 
aeval times the coloring was brighter, as is shown by remains of 
ancient painting in the mouldings. While all the pomp and 
altars of the ancient worship have long since disappeared, one 
object appropriately keeps its place, a very large slab of plain 
gray slate covering a flat tomb, on which in large letters are 
the words, " Hac Sunt in Fossa Bedse Venerabilis Ossa." Here, 
in one of the oldest, calmest ecclesiastical nooks in the coun- 
try, sleeps its primitive monkish chronicler. 

The transept, while in the same style as the nave, has a 
more varied or irregular design. Besides Norman features, 
there are tall, Pointed windows at each end containing colored 
glass, and in the central tower, which is open to a height of 
155 feet, there is a sharply acute vault above four other lofty 
traceried Perpendicular windows. 

The choir has many of the general features of the nave, but 
is less ornamented, with the exception of the vaulting, which is 




DURHAM, THE uALILEE. 



DURHAM. 225 

Decorated (1289-1307), and of course has Pointed arches, on 
which the ribs are bold, and are enriched with carvings. The 
minor features, that, however, are of great importance as com- 
bined, are of unusual beauty and elaboration. A new and 
splendid screen (1877) at the west end, designed by Sir G. G. 
Scott, is of bold and rich design, and does not interfere with 
the view from west to east. It has three large trifoiled open 
arches and a central gable of polished, veined, reddish alabas- 
ter, borne on clustered pillars of dark-greenish native marble, 
also polished. Another, much higher and still more elaborate 
screen, dating from about 1380, and forming the reredos, is of 
Caen stone, and was made in London or Paris. Mr. Billings 
says that it is " perhaps the most remarkable in the kingdom, 
either as regards magnitude or richness of detail." Above a 
base, it shows a range of lofty niches crowned by still loftier 
and richer canopies, in which the soaring lines of the Pointed 
style are wonderfully shown ; but coloring and gilding, statues 
once numerous, and other fine decorations, have been stripped 
from it, leaving it now almost white. At the foot of the steps to 
the altar is found an important, although less prominent object, 
— an immense incised stone, from which a monumental brass 
has been torn, said to have been the largest in England. Hardly 
less notable than the work in stone is that in wood, which in- 
cludes a bishop's throne, — also said to be the largest (and the 
highest) in the country, — and stalls dating from 1660 to 1672. 
Among new objects remarkable for beauty and elaborate de- 
sign, is a pulpit, at the southwest corner of the central tower, 
made of alabaster and enriched with fine mosaic and colored 
marbles. A lectern, of dull brass, richly worked and set with 
brilliants, stands near it, and on the altar is a sumptuous 
embroidered carving (1877) in red and gold, above which is a 
sculptured copy (1849) of Leonardo da Vinci's " Last Supper." 
The " Nine Altars " is an immense chapel, measuring 129 by 
38i feet, built about 1230, and named from the shrines which 
were in it, but which were long ago removed. They were dedi- 
cated to St. Michael, the Archangel ; St. Aidan and St. Helena, 
St. Peter and St, Paul ; St. Martin; St. Cuthbert, and St. Bede ; 
St. Lawrence ; St. Thomas of Canterbury and St. Catharine ; 

15 



226 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

St. Jonn Baptist and St. Margaret ; and St. Andrew and St. 
Mary Magdalen. Besides these there was a shrine especially 
for St. Cuthbert, who, with other native patrons, was duly 
honored. It is, however, as a splendid example of Early Eng- 
lish, as well as for coloring, that the chapel is now remarkable. 
In form it is an aisle, built of stone, with a neutral tint which 
is relieved by a local greenish marble, stronger than Purbeck, 
and filled with large fossils, used for slender clustered pillars 
on the piers. Between these, on the east side, is a row of nine 
tall lancet windows ; above them are six smaller ; and, in the 
centre, a large rose conspicuous at the end of the choir. All 
of these openings, and others at the north and south, have been 
filled since 1873 with gorgeous glass, covered with ornament or 
numerous figures. Of the latter, and especially notable, are 
groups in the great north window representing the story of 
Joseph, whose name had been given to the window itself. 

Before the Dissolution, the shrine of St. Cuthbert stood 
here, magnificently built of green marble, gold, and enamels, 
and overhung by his banner. Here, or near here, his remains 
rested during almost six centuries, and then were removed, but 
were buried near by in a grave that was opened in 1827, when 
several rich or curious articles were taken from his coffin, and 
his bones were reinterred. According to tradition, the body of 
the saint was buried by the monks beneath the bell-tower, but 
in 1867 a careful search entirely disproved the story. Amid 
the changes in the world his remains and his insignia were 
venerated by fully twenty generations, and for a longer time 
were preserved in the peace in which they had been laid, to 
become at length a source of supply of curiosities for a 
museum. 

TJie cloisters have four aisles of nearly equal length, with flat 
ceilings of dark oak, divided by ribs into square panels, and 
with exterior arches filled with plain, heavy tracery, nearly uni- 
form in design. At the south corner, and partly below ground, 
is a large, dry, oblong crypt, one of three remaining in the ex- 
tensive group of buildings. It is in early style, and suggested 
to the writer, by its size at least, the crypt under the Salle 
Svnodale at Sens. 



DURHAM. 227 

The chapter-house, dating from the first half of the twelfth 
century, was almost destroyed, in cold-blood, by the barbarians 
in 1796-1797. " It was," says Mr. King, " unquestionably the 
finest example of a Norman chapter-house remaining in Eng- 
land. Within, it was about 80 feet long by 37 broad. Its 
eastern end was circular." A person named Morpeth (the 
" chapter architect ") and Dean Cornwallis (a name already 
associated with so much benefit for England in America) 
" improved " the venerable monument by knocking out the key- 
stones of the arches and achieving general wreck, in order to 
make a " comfortable room," — an object in which they were 
unsuccessful. 

The monastic buildings, surrounding and extending beyond 
the cloisters, were extensive, and many parts are well pre- 
served ; indeed, says Mr. Billings, they are perhaps more com- 
plete than elsewhere in the country. In addition to the church, 
chapter-house, and crypt, parts of the extraordinary group al- 
ready described, is the Dormitory, dating from 1404, and now 
covered by a wooden roof in plain Perpendicular. Originally 
it was a grand Decorated apartment, 193 feet 7 inches long, 
38 feet 11 inches wide, and 31 feet high. Beneath it is a crypt 
of the same size on the ground, but of only half the height. 
Both of them, after they had been subdivided and used for 
several purposes, were restored between 1849 and 1853, and 
the Dormitory together with another hall along the south side 
of the cloisters were appropriated, and are now used, for the 
library, which, says Mr. Billings, is " certainly superior to any 
ecclesiastical library in the country." Mr. King supports the 
statement, considering the collection " one of the most inter- 
esting and important in England." There are several thousand 
printed books, and about seven hundred manuscripts, including 
many of great value, " descended from the monastery to the 
chapter." Placed with them are seals, copes, and other objects, 
and the relics of St. Cuthbert, all of hardly less importance or 
inferior interest. Among other remaining parts of the ancient 
buildings are a large and simple gateway with a lofty vaulted 
archway, and the Dean's kitchen (1368-1370), octagonal, 36 
feet in diameter, and covered by a peculiar groining. 



228 NORTHERN CATHEDRALS. 

The view from the central tower should be enjoyed, as well 
as another obtained in a walk beneath the trees along the steep 
banks of the river. From the former position is seen a pros- 
pect extending in all directions over high, large rounded hills 
made green and fair by prosperous rural or pastoral life, and 
traversed by deep valleys, in which nestle smoky iron-works 
that add much to the wealth of the region, and that, if not 
beautiful, are in their way as illustrative of the present age as 
the buildings beneath are of the ages of faith. 

Tlie castle, separated from the cathedral by an open area, is 
thoroughly English, and both interesting and important. Its 
irregular exterior towards the north and west, standing boldly 
on wooded heights that rise above the Tyne, is the most pict- 
uresque. Towards the south the frontage is less imposing; 
yet even there will be found a quaint courtyard with a very 
old-world look, to which an arched gateway gives access from 
the area. At the east is the Keep, perched on a mound, and 
still large and good, although altered. Steps from the west 
side of the courtyard lead to the hall, a hundred feet long, very 
high, and the largest room in the castle. From its plain walls 
rises a ceiling, with a low double-pitch, showing dark timber, 
and at the north is a large window containing colored glass. 
Quainter and more snug are rooms along the north side of the 
court, although they have been more changed. They occupy 
two stories, and show English fitting and furnishing from the 
sixteenth century, combining antique comfort with some state- 
liness. A large square staircase, made of blackened wood and 
much carved in the Jacobean style, leads to them and to a long 
narrow connecting corridor hung with old tapestry and lined 
with antique furniture. In the basement at the farther end is 
the most ancient portion of the castle, still containing the un- 
altered oblong Norman chapel, now cold and damp, for the 
floor is several feet below the surface of the ground. By the 
dim light that alone reaches it are seen two tiers of tall round 
pillars, three in each row, with carved capitals, supporting a 
vaulting. Throughout the castle there is little of the brilliant 
restoration, or mediaeval or resplendent modern work sometimes 
found in Continental castles similarly placed, — the bishops' 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 229 

palaces at Angiers and Salzburg, for instance ; but a charm of 
old days lingers there amid the quaintness, and the place is not 
less worth seeing from the fact that, like the rock beneath it, 
all of it is thoroughly English. 



WESTMINSTEB ABBEY. 1 

This illustrious edifice, with its inestimable and endeared 
associations, ranks as a cathedral by its magnitude, by its great 
importance in the art and history of England, and by the fact 
that it was for a few years (1540-1550) the seat of a bishop- 
ric. For centuries, however, it was the church of one of the 
most prominent monastic establishments, and consequently it 
may properly be ranked between two great classes of ecclesias- 
tical structures, and connect the cathedrals with the abbeys. 

An outline of its history and chief features and of the im- 
mense array of monuments in it can be filled by the abundant 
details given upon the pages of Cottingham, Neale, and Bray- 
ley, Ackerman and Stanley, as well as by the help of many 
hundreds of engravings. Like its deep foundations, the early 
history of the Abbey is hidden in an obscurity we cannot 
penetrate. Imagination must now lead us, in a district made 
noble by some of the most famous edifices of a great empire, to 
conceive a wild region filled with thickets, such as the place 
was in the seventh century, that had then given it the name of 

1 See Ackerman, R., Westminster Abbey : its History, Antiquities, and Monu- 
ments, 70 colored plates, 2 vols, royal 4°, London, 1812. — Bratley, E. W., 
Illustrations of the Public Buildings of London, 2 vols. 8°, 1838, i. 210-248, with 
6 plates. — Camden, W., Reges, Reginae, Nobiles, etc., sepulti usque 1600, Lon- 
don, small 4°, 1600 (Epitaphs). — Cottingham, L. N., Plans, Elevations, Sections, 
Details, and Views of the Magnificent Chapel of King Henry VII., etc., 72 plates, 
2 vols., atlas folio, London, 1822-1829. — Dart, J., Westmonasterium ; or, the His- 
tory and Antiquities of the Abbey Church of St. Peter's, etc., 2 vols, folio, 147 
plates, London (1723?). —Neale, J. P., The History and Antiquities of the 
Abbey Church of St. Peter, Westminster, with Lives of the Abbots and Deans ; 
text by E. W. Brayley, 2 vols, royal 4°, London, 1818-1823. (The writer's copy 

has over three hundred extra plates.) The same, with additions to date, 

royal 4°, London, 1856. — Stanley, A. P. (D.D.), Historical Memorials of West- 
minster Abbe3 r , 8°, London, 1868. Besides the descriptions of the edifice and the 
account of its condition, the monumental inscriptions are taken from the writer's 
note book, in which he has also copied many others. 



230 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

Thorn ey Island. Here, a legend says, the Romans built a tem- 
ple, but no relic of it seems to have been found as proof ; and 
here also some of the earliest Christians in the country are 
said to have erected a church. A more authentic statement, 
that seems like a fact, looms in the dimness now spread over 
the years immediately after 600, and indicates that Sebert, king 
of the East Saxons at that time, actually built a church here, 
in loco terrihili, as the spot was then and later called, — a 
germ from which grew an abbey dedicated to God and St. 
Peter. After the rigorous vicissitudes of the succeeding cen- 
turies, including devastations by the Danes, Edward the Con- 
fessor, about 1050, began the reconstruction of this church, 
and finished it in twelve or fifteen years. His work was des- 
tined to yield in turn to greater achievements, for nearly every 
part of the majestic edifice that stands to-day, dates from a later 
period. On May 16, 1220, Henry III. laid its foundation at the 
east end (under the present chapel of Henry VII.) , and help 
was given both by the clergy and the laity. If what is now 
called " superstition " aided, so too did private offerings like the 
gifts to good objects in our enlightened time. The rebuilding 
of the church had been actively continued for about sixteen 
years " before the Sunday after Michaelmas, 1261," says Mr. 
Brayley, when the total expenditure had been about .£29,606. 
Between 1245 and 1269 the choir and transept were erected, 
and the east part of the nave between the latter year and 1307 ; 
but the west part dates only from 1340 to 1483, and the west 
front, except the upper portion of the towers, was not built 
until during the succeeding twenty-six years. It was as late 
as from 1715 to 1735 that the existing form of the west front 
was given, chiefly by Sir Christopher Wren. Of other parts 
of the building it may be briefly said that several, including 
the cloisters, are of the fourteenth century, and that between 
1502 and 1520 the unrivalled chapel at the east end was built 
by Henry VII. In the reign of his successor the Abbey was in 
more danger than at any other time, and narrowly escaped de- 
struction, — a fate never threatened in the Civil War, says Dean 
Stanley. Extensive restorations and repairs were made in the 
half century that followed the accession of King William and 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 231 

Queen Mary, as well as at several later dates, and have been 
recently continued. Notwithstanding all these efforts, very 
large repairs are now imperatively needed on the clerestory of 
the nave and on the north end, for the climate has proved a 
bitter foe, to which the material seems to be too easily a victim. 

The style of the church itself is Early English of the later 
period in its most graceful and magnificent development. In 
unity the design is second only to that so remarkably shown at 
Salisbury ; but the richness and the grandeur here are greater, 
while at the same time the intricacies of the church and of the 
structures connected with it are such that they can be under- 
stood only from a plan, or, better still, from repeated visits. 

TJie exterior is impressive from its length and height, the 
boldness of the buttresses, and its grand simplicity, except at 
the east end, where the elaboration is very remarkable. Gray 
is the prevailing color, bleached to an almost spectral white- 
ness on exposed parts, and shaded to grim black in many 
places. While the general effect is noble, there are deficiencies 
in the design that we could wish did not exist. A lack of spires 
and the comparatively small size of the western towers give 
an effect that is at least unlike that of some of the noblest 
mediaeval churches. Few of the English cathedrals have so low 
a central tower, — one of their great characteristics ; and the 
west front, although imposing from its outlines and dimensions, 
lacks the boldness and the grace of York, and shows but little 
of the poetic imagery of Wells or Salisbury. The unfortunate 
details designed by Wren are every year more deeply veiled, or 
worn away by London smoke and dampness, and should be 
remembered as the work of one who, towards the close of a 
long life of grand achievement, made here his possibly single 
great public error. 

The interior shows the characteristic English length, com- 
bined with the French height, form of apse, and polygonal 
chapels. To these foreign peculiarities are added large and 
splendid rose windows in the ends of the transept, also in the 
French manner, and a suggestion of the Spanish sombreness. 
All the chief parts, — the great arcade, the clerestory, and the 
triforium, — are developed nobly and symmetrically; the latter 



232 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

being of uncommon excellence. While there is not the immense 
space of Cologne, Milan, or Seville, the design is unsurpassed 
in purity and beauty, and with these and other admirable quali- 
ties, forms one of the most perfect interiors in the Pointed 
style. The height and sharpness of the arches give the effect 
of soaring lines shown in the best examples. The length is 
great enough to give a grandeur that some larger churches need. 
The light is solemn, and the stone-work, of deep-gray or brown, 
is venerable ; but neither light nor stone are too sombre. The 
west window fills the end of the nave, and admirably closes 
the long vista in that direction ; while the lines of the build- 
ing, the rich minor details, and the profusion of memorials 
concentrate with superb effect around the east end of the choir. 
Although the monuments are much more numerous than in 
any other church, there is no disagreeable suggestion of mere 
storage. Nearly everything is in good order, and comparatively 
few things are inharmonious. Never has a nation had a more 
majestic shrine for its religious thought and for the memory of 
its history and its heroes. All classes of the people crowd the 
interior during every service on Sunday ; and while this remains 
true, old England is safe. A double beauty and impressiveness, 
attended by the charms of music, poetry, and the three sister 
arts, are also there ; and with the refinements accumulated by 
wealth and civilization come the power and grace of Christianity 
expressed amid unique surroundings. Indeed, while the terse 
Latin on the monument to Sir Isaac Newton, in the nave, 
describes him, it also in three words expresses the character 
of Westminster Abbey, — Hvmani Generis Decvs. 

The views obtained in four directions from beneath the 
central tower are very impressive and magnificent, present- 
ing as they do the great features and many of the details of 
the vast interior. Directly overhead, the vaulted ceiling of the 
tower recedes into dimness ; and from this meeting place the 
soaring arches of the transept, choir, and nave stretch far, 
their elegant, yet massive ribs, tipped with pale gold and closely 
set, interlaced on grounds of light gray banded with darker 
tints of the same color. From the pavement rise tall round 
pillars with slender shafts engaged upon them, parts of the 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 233 

lofty main arcade, bearing a beautifully designed triforium and 
a high clerestory that rises into the graceful vaulting. All the 
face of the walls above the arches of the great arcade and in 
the triforium is covered with elaborate foiled ornament that 
gives a peculiar richness ; and the magnificence of coloring is 
imparted to the dark and simple tints of the stone-work by su- 
perb painted glass, most of it of recent date, that fills many of 
the less seen windows as well as every one that is prominent. 
Age seems to have only slightly touched the masonry ; but in 
the nave, at least, the original smooth surface along the joints 
has been disintegrating, and a coating like oil has been added 
to preserve*the stones. Almost as noticeable as the great archi- 
tectural features, and of no slight significance in the long views 
from the centre of the edifice, are the pews and seats, in the 
nave and transept, arranged for the large congregations that 
are there frequently assembled. 

The choir, defined as the east arm of the cross, is much 
shorter than it usually is in England ; but as the part of the 
church commonly used for services, it is much longer. Like a 
Spanish choir, it extends far down the nave, and is well fitted 
for the requirements of the English ritual. The choir proper 
has only three bays, besides a pentagonal apse. Two of these 
bays towards the west form a square area, called the sacrarium, 
entered through a richly worked metal railing beneath the cen- 
tral tower. Among the superb details here are a large square 
mosaic pavement in Early Italian style, much worn, but very 
interesting, and a superb and lofty reredos (1867-1870) well 
worthy of the abbey. It is made of alabaster and is entirely 
of English workmanship, except a large oblong mosaic, by 
Salviati, of Venice, placed above the altar. White marble 
statues stand along the front, among them Christ and St. Peter 
at the right and left of the mosaic. On the sides of the altar 
there are rich panels of copper-colored bronze and gilt brass 
pillars. The east part of the choir is enclosed, and forms the 
chapel of St. Edivard the Confessor, the most venerable portion 
of the edifice, containing the shrine of the royal saint (1066). 
This stands in the centre, and has three heights of arcades, all 
in Italian style, the chief and lowest being of stone, with twisted 



234 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

pillars and mosaics now much broken. Around the sides of the 
chapel, between the pillars and beneath canopies, are large altar- 
shaped royal tombs, all of great interest. The tomb of Henry 
III. (1272) is a rich semi-Gothic Italian design, and bears his 
recumbent effigy. That of Edward I. (1307) is very plain, 
and made of five large slabs of Purbeck marble. Eleanor, his 
queen (1290), lies in an altar tomb bearing a statue of her, 
and is covered on the sides with armorial bearings and rich 
Pointed tracery, all executed in gray Petworth marble. A 
remarkable procession bore her remains from Lincoln to their 
final resting-place, as is well known ; and at each of the ten 
places where they rested on the route, the king built a mag- 
nificent cross. The last one was at Charing, since called Char- 
ing Cross, one of the busiest and most familiar spots in London, 
where the elaborate monument of Edward's piety and love has 
been of late nobly restored. The tomb of Edward III. (1377), 
beneath a fine canopy, was extremely elegant ; but it is now 
badly worn. That of Richard I. (1400) is high and of altar 
form, and bears an effigy beneath a simple canopy. One of the 
most curious and richly sculptured monuments is that of Henry 
V. (1422). It consists in part of a peculiar chapel midway 
over the apsidal aisle, approached through two octagonal 
towers that are covered with statuary and fine tracery, and 
are connected by a canopy of the most delicate elaboration. 
On each side of the chapel there is a similar design, and on 
the east wall, and forming another part of it, is a lofty and 
still richer screen. When entire, the composition was of great 
value in history as well as in art ; but it has been unpardon- 
ably injured or neglected. All the monuments of the sover- 
eigns at Westminster have, indeed, been seriously damaged. 
Compared with many in St. Peter's at Rome, or in St. Denis, 
near Paris, they lack size and splendor, and they have not been 
as well kept as those at La Superga and the Escorial ; yet the 
English group is not surpassed in age or interest by any other 
in Europe. In this part of the Abbey, it should be added here, 
many other distinguished personages besides royalty lie buried. 
No other object in the choir will probably attract more at- 
tention than the coronation chair. It is made of dark wood, and 




■ ! 






WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 235 

is very large, and, also, is remarkably shabby. Beneath the 
seat is placed the stone of Scone, that was brought from Scot- 
land with the Scottish regalia by Edward I., since whose time 
all the sovereigns have been crowned while seated on it. Ac- 
cording to the story, it is a part of Jacob's pillar ; but far more 
probably it was the pillow on which rested the head of the dying 
St. Columba, a relic of the minster where, says Dr. Stanley, 
" the first authentic coronation in western Christendom " oc- 
curred, — at Iona. It is a flat piece of slightly reddish-gray 
sandstone, about two feet long, a foot and a half wide, and 
nine inches thick, and, says a modern observer, very like the 
stone of which Dunstaffnage Castle is built. 

Tlie monuments that crowd the other portions of the Abbey 
were neglected and were very dusty as late as 1871. In the 
next year a thorough cleaning had improved them wonderfully, 
and they are now well kept. Most of the older works are less 
mutilated than might be supposed ; but nearly every one of them 
has suffered injury. In number and in variety of style the 
vast collection far surpasses any other ; while in associations 
with position, character, and genius, it presents its own indis- 
putable, peerless record. The north transept is devoted chiefly 
to the statesmen ; the chapels of the choir contain the monu- 
ments of others, of ecclesiastics, and persons of high rank ; 
and the south end of the transept is filled chiefly with me- 
morials of men of letters, occupying a space that has long 
borne the well-known name of " Poet's Corner." But many 
years ago it ceased to be a corner, it is a great arm of the 
church. 

T/ie Poefs Corner shows appropriately, at the end towards 
the choir, the monument (1556) to Chaucer (1400), — a gray, 
oblong recess in the wall, with a carved canopy in Gothic style. 
On the inner parts the surfaces are somewhat roughened and 
disintegrated, but at the back is an inscription painted yellow 
and easily read, although formerly it was almost illegible. 
Close to the left of the usual entrance, at the southeastern cor- 
ner, is a small white marble tablet with the simple words, " 
Rare Ben Jonson ! " Next it, in quaint Roman letters, is the 
solemn and affectionate inscription, "Here lies (expecting the 



236 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

second coming of our Saviour Christ Jesus) the body of Ed- 
mond Spencer, the Prince of Poets in his time, whose divine 
spirit needs no other witness than the works which he left be- 
hind him. He was born in London" in 1553, and died in 1598. 
Next is the monument of Samuel Butler (1680), inscribed in 
Latin. Close to it the eyes are at once attracted by the features 
of a bust made of white marble (1737), and by the name below 
it, Milton (1674). Directly underneath, and near the pave- 
ment, is the figure of a Lyric Muse holding a bas-relief medal- 
lion with a bust, on which is cut the name of Thomas Gray 
(1771). The poet's body lies at Stoke Pogis. On a plain base 
below the Muse, in capital italics, are the lines, — 

" No more the Grecian Muse unrivalled reigns, 
To Britain let the nations homage pay ; 
She felt a Homer's fire in Milton's strains, 
A Pindar's rapture in the lyre of Gray." 

Latin inscriptions to Shadwell and Mason follow, and the me- 
morials to Prior, Sharp, and Anstey ; then a corner of a pro- 
jecting wall is turned, and on the other side appears a fresh 
round pedestal of white marble that bears the letters " T. C." 
and several lines. It is the monument to Thomas Campbell 
(1844). Near it is the bust of Southey. Then a large full- 
length and familiar form looks down, while leaning on a shaft 
and pointing to the lines from his own " Tempest," that are so 
suggestive here, — 

" The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, 
The solemn temples, the great globe itself, 
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, 
And, like the baseless fabric of a vision, 
Leave not a wrack behind." 

There stands William Shakspeare (1616). Next him is the 
bust (1762) of James Thomson (1748), with the words, 
" Tutored by thee, sweet Poetry exalts her voice to ages, and 
informs the page with music, image, sentiment, and thought, 
never to die ! " Beyond, are monuments to Rowe, to Gay, and 
to Goldsmith (1774), the last, as the inscription says, " Qui 
nullum fere scribendi genus non tetigit, nullum quod tetigit 





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m 


, 







WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 237 

non ornavit." A very large monument to John, the great 
Duke of Argyle (1743), by Roubiliac, follows, and then me- 
morials of others less distinguished, until one pauses and looks 
far up to the statue of Handel (1759), and reads from a scroll 
beside him, " I know that my Redeemer liveth," with the notes 
he set to that sublime text. Almost below him, and standing 
on a round base on the pavement, is a statue. An admirable, 
long, but none too long, inscription attracts at once the eye 
and thought, for it begins, " Quisquis es, qui hoc marmor in- 
tueris, | Venerare memoriam Iosephi Addison | Quern Fides 
Christiana | Quern Virtus, bonique mores, | Assiduum sibi vin- 
dicant patronum." Beyond, are other names less known ; 
among which are, however, those of Garrick (1779), and Cam- 
den, the antiquary (1623). Even the plain pavement is nearly 
filled with these memorials of departed men of genius. A 
portion of it next the wall that bears some of the works just 
mentioned, shows its interest by the inscriptions cut on large 
slate-like stones, — 

HANDEL'S STATUE UPON THE WALL ; 

ADDISON'S ON THE FLOOR ; 

AND IN THE PAVEMENT 

[RICHARD CUMBERLAND " CHARLES DICKENS, [LORD MACAULAY 

(1811) LIES HERE.] BORN 7TH FEBRUARY, 1812, (1859).] 

DIED 9TH JUNE, 1870." 

[DR. JOHNSON [RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN [THOMAS CAMPBELL 

(1784).] (1816) LIES NEXT.] (1811) LIES HERE.] 

Close to the right of the entrance is the bust of "Michael 
Draiton, Esq r ," who, the inscription tells us quaintly, was " A 
memorable poet of this age," who " exchanged his Lavrell for 
a Crowne of Glorye, An . 1631." A little farther on is Chaucer's 
monument, already mentioned; then one to the poet Cowley; 
then a bust on a round conical base that is inscribed " J. Dry- 
den— born 1632 — died May 1, 1700. John Sheffield, Duke 
of Buckingham, erected this monument 1720. Scheemakers, 
sculptor." One of the latest memorials erected in this con- 
secrated place is that of a poet who was buried where he had 
lived, three thousand miles away, yet whose name has become 



238 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

inseparable from both the Englands. A morning star of poesy 
in the new world shines beside the' elder constellation, and its 
rays touch the bust of Longfellow. 

The north transept contains an even greater number of monu- 
ments. They are chiefly to men who have been distinguished 
on the bench, in the field, or on the deck, or in other public life. 
Of those eminent in law commemorated here is William, Earl 
of Mansfield (1793) ; of the great commanders are Sir Peter 
Warren (1752), Admiral Vernon (1757), and Sir John Mal- 
colm (1833) ; of others who helped to spread British rule in 
India are Admiral Watson (1757), Sir Eyre Coote (1783), and 
Warren Hastings (1818) ; of statesmen are the Dukes of New- 
castle, William Cavendish (1676), and John Holies (1711), 
the first Earl of Chatham, William Pitt (1778), and also 
George Canning (1827), and Sir Robert Peel (1850). 

The north aisle contains the monuments of other warriors 
and statesmen, and also those of philanthropists, musicians, 
and men of distinction in science (to whom there are also 
important monuments in the choir chapels). William Wil- 
berforce (1833) and Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton (1845), 
the immortal emancipators, are here. Purcell (1695), Blow 
(1708), Croft (1727), and Arnold (1802) are commemorated 
by stones as well as by their harmonics, that now at times 
re-echo through the church. In this aisle there are also monu- 
ments to Dr. Burney and to Sir Godfrey Kneller, the artist 
(1723). Towards the nave, and flanking the west entrance to 
the choir, are monuments to the Earls of Stanhope (1720-1746) 
and Sir Isaac Newton (1727), he, "qui animi vi prope divina 
Planetarum motus, . . . cometarum semitas, Oceanique iEstus, 
. . . Primus demonstravit." Above the great door in the west 
front, facing him, is a statue of William Pitt (1806), son of 
the Earl of Chatham, and near by are Charles James Fox 
(1806) and Sir James Mackintosh (1832). In the south aisle 
is a memorial of Lord Viscount Howe, erected by " the Prov- 
ince of Massachuset's Bay in New England, by an order of the 
Great and General Court, bearing date February 1, 1759." 
Still farther on, and on the same side, is another monument 
on which Americans will look with interest. It is a carved 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 239 

sarcophagus, beneath which lie the remains of Major John 
Andre (1780). On the wall, and blocking some of the windows, 
are testimonials to various persons and naval heroes, some of 
which, with their white marble clouds and other wonders, may 
be called remarkable ; there is perhaps nothing else like them 
in Europe. Throughout the body of the nave there are me- 
morials of statesmen and of many public or well-known men. 

The chapels of the choir and the side of its aisle are crowded 
with works showing a great diversity of age and style, as well 
as of persons whose names they bear. One of the oldest monu- 
ments, and one of four in a line erected to members of the 
same family, is that of Aymer de Valence (1323), an altar- 
tomb, bearing his recumbent figure covered by a lofty but now 
broken canopy, once richly colored, gilt, and carved. Tombs of 
an altar form are numerous, as also are the lofty architectural 
compositions in the Renaissance styles of the reigns of Queen 
Elizabeth and James I. An immense and elaborate work in 
memory of Lord Hunsdon (1596) is the largest of the latter, 
and is, indeed, said to be the largest in the country. All the 
designs in Renaissance display a great amount of variegated 
marbles, coloring, gilding, and fantastic carving, together with 
sculptured figures. Works generally of interest in history or 
art are erected to many of the old nobility and to several ecclesi- 
astics, scattered among which are also memorials of persons 
eminent in society or science. In the chapel of St. Paul is a 
colossal pedestal bearing a statue of James Watt (1819), who, 
as the inscription tells us, by his " improvement of the steam 
engine, enlarged the resources of his country, increased the 
power of man, and rose to an eminent place among the most 
illustrious followers of science and the real benefactors of the 
world." In St. John's chapel are monuments to Thomas Telford 
(1834), the great engineer, and to Sir Humphry Davy (1829), 
who died and was buried at Geneva. Near them is one of the 
most celebrated sculptured groups in the Abbey, which was cut 
by Roubiliac and erected by Washington Gascoigne Nightin- 
gale in memory of his father and mother. Death issuing from 
a grave is shown aiming a dart at her, that the husband, with 
intense expression, tries to avert. 



240 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

The Chapel of Henry VIZ, one of the most sumptuous ever 
built, and the most remarkable example of elaborate masonry 
and carving in the Pointed, as well as Perpendicular, style, is 
at the east end of the Abbey, where the Lady Chapel usually 
stands. In plan, it is a nave 103| feet long and 35| feet wide, 
with an aisle on each side and a rounded apse, bordered by 
five chapels between huge buttresses. The vaulting, 60 feet in 
height, is an amazing lacework of cusped ribs and intricate 
foiled tracery. Hardly less remarkable are other features; 
among the chief of which are a low arcade, a high and open 
clerestory, and a range of elaborately canopied niches with stat- 
ues that occupies the place of a triforium. All the walls and 
vaults are stone of an even tint, lighter than that in the body 
of the church. Painted glass in a very large fifteen-dayed win- 
dow filling the west end above the entrance, and the banners 
of the Knights of the Bath hung high above their stalls along 
both sides of the chapel, add color and increase the richness 
of the effect. Since 1812, when the last installation of the 
Knights occurred here, the chapel has been less used for ser- 
vices, and has become more monumental. Nowhere else is 
more superbly shown the old characteristic English use of 
elaborated form instead of color for decoration and expression 
of the native conceptions of beauty. None of the rich poly- 
chrome of Italy or France is seen upon these walls. The 
painted glories of the Sistine Chapel, or at Orvieto and Assisi, 
the rich marbles used in Naples, and the sumptuous mosaics 
of the Medici at Florence, as well as such gorgeous coloring 
as covers the interior of the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, are in 
character, as well as fact, entirely foreign to this amazing 
masterpiece of English style and workmanship. No lettered 
lines could tell much more than do these delicately wrought 
stones in their simple native hue, unveiled like Truth as they 
are, and like her shaped with a beauty that needs no rich cloak 
to make it greater. 

While Henry VII., like an English king, built a chapel 
in a native form of Pointed, the Renaissance was growing 
strong in favor through the world of art, and showed its in- 
fluence in the design of one of the last parts, the founder's 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 241 

tomb, that is, as Lord Bacon truly said, " one of the stateliest 
and daintiest in Europe." Pietro Torrigiano (whose latter his- 
tory after he left England became a tragedy) was the artist of 
the work. It has a lofty altar-shaped body of black marble, 
bearing figures of the king and queen, and is enriched with 
numerous pilasters, roses, and alti-rilievi that, like the statues, 
are of gilt copper. An immense dark, greenish-bronze screen 
of English workmanship surrounds the tomb; and although 
now somewhat broken, it has at least been recently cleaned, 
for some twenty years ago it was very dirty. Numerous other 
memorials of royal personages placed in the chapel were 
erected in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Queen 
Elizabeth (1603), in the north aisle, and Mary Queen of Scots 
(1587), in the south aisle, lie beneath canopied monuments 
composed chiefly of white marble and in Renaissance style, 
forming the best English examples of it thus applied. 

The chapter-house is an octagon of great size, with a central 
pillar that supports the vaulting. It is entered from the clois- 
ters by a quaint and curious passage, and a portal that with its 
central pillar and admirable sculptures is worthy of the noble 
room. For a long time the latter was mutilated and in de- 
plorable condition ; but its restoration was begun in 1866, and in 
1872 it was opened to the public. It is now in excellent order, 
showing strength to last for a long time, and some due justice 
to its ancient dignity. Pale brown stone is used for the walls, 
and white bricks or lighter stone, in courses alternately lighter 
and darker, for the vaulting. The central pillar is a cluster of 
polished Purbeck marble shafts, and others smaller are used in 
an arcade around the lower portion of the walls. Still richer 
decoration was given to the arcade by existing carved diaper- 
work and foliage, and, at an early date, upon its background 
by paintings said to have been executed by a monk, John of 
Northampton, in the reign of Edward IV. A few heads that 
remain near the abbot's stall are as fine as the Italian work of 
their date. Above the arcade, as usual, rise very large win- 
dows, that are here filled with geometrical tracery and tinted 
or colored glass, the design of which, as is apt to be the case, 
has given rise to very different opinions. Before the restora- 

16 



242 WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 

tion a library or records were kept in the room ; but there is 
now little in it except tables bearing cases in which curious 
documents are displayed. 

Dean Stanley, who is the authority used here on the history 
of this grand old place, says (p. 387) the approach was unlike 
that of any other chapter-house. This one, he adds, " is, ex- 
cept Salisbury, the largest in the kingdom. It is, except Wells, 
the only one which has the advantage of a spacious Crypt under- 
neath, to keep it dry and warm. It is, except Worcester, the 
only instance of a round or octagonal chapter-house, in place 
of the rectangular or longitudinal buildings usually attached to 
Benedictine monasteries." 

Besides associations with religious affairs, the chapter-house 
has others of great interest. It witnessed assemblies of the 
Commons in 1256, during the reign of Henry III. ; and there, 
says Dean Stanley, they found " their first home," — indeed, 
he thought the fact unquestionable " that, from the time of 
the separation of the Commons from the Lords, it became 
their habitual meeting-place," except as they also met in the 
Refectory, mentioned below. 

The Cloisters are three in number, as is very unusual, — the 
Great Cloisters with four aisles, measuring about 150 by 135 
feet ; the Little Cloisters, also with four aisles, about 70 feet 
square ; and the Dark Cloisters, that are long aisles connecting 
the two former. The first named are spacious, vaulted in irregu- 
lar designs, and ornamented with very varied Geometrical tra- 
cery upon the inner walls and in the arches towards the open 
central area. Distributed through them is a large number of 
monuments and grave-stones, many bearing the names of dis- 
tinguished persons ; and adding to the interest are admirable 
views of the exterior of the church, and also several important 
parts of the monastic buildings, — most of which, however, are 
not open to the public. 

The once vast and magnificent Refectory, " a chamber only 
inferior in beauty and size to Westminster Hall," no longer 
shows the stateliness with which the monks or the earlier Com- 
mons of the Realm were surrounded when they assembled. 
Of corresponding importance was the Dormitory, that " still 



WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 243 

exists, divided between the Chapter Library and the Great 
School." Dean Stanley's minute and valuable accounts of the 
Pyx, the Treasury, and other interesting parts of the monas 
tery that can only be mentioned here, should be read. Perhaps 
no one of these places will be longer remembered, or bears 
a value more worthy to close this long list of famous spots 
in the famous group enclosed by the ancient walls, than the 
Almonry, where, or near where, for several years succeeding 
1477, or earlier, William Caxton did his work as the first 
printer in England. 

The Abbey, as already indicated, is not only associated with 
the entire religious history of London, and indeed of the whole 
country, but also with a great variety of personal and public 
history, culminating in the presence of the impersoned majesty 
of the nation at the coronations of the sovereigns during six 
centuries, and the preservation of their mortal remains for a 
period almost as prolonged. It has by degrees, since the close 
of the fourteenth century, become the last resting-place or shel- 
ter of the memorials of a long series of departed worthies 
who in their time helped, in their own way, to build the might- 
ier fabric of their country's character and greatness. Diversi- 
fied and immense as is the array of monuments giving the 
Abbey such distinction, and gathering associations which en- 
dear it to the nation and the world, it is yet no mere gallery 
of art, although it is an invaluable collection of the work of 
centuries. 

For here the imperial island "keeps its mighty dead," or its 
memorials of them, and throughout the consecrated edifice helps 
to preserve for all its people and for all mankind the names 
and the examples of those who have by their labors aided to 
create its imperishable glory. Beneath the arches here no 
one good class can be spared, and no one is supreme. In the 
far vaster structure of the empire every variety of true genius, 
learning, service, and devotion are needed, and here the memory 
and lesson of them all is gathered. Life is not vanity, rank 
is not paltry, genius and learning alone are not pre-eminent, 
in the lesson of the Abbey. Even the poets and authors whom 
some rate the superiors of all men, and to whom England owes 



244 THE MONASTERIES. 

so many of her noblest charms, could never, like the various 
conditions of her people, have had the fostering home that 
she has been for them without her lords in patriotism, ability, 
and public service, and her sterling men of business. Vines 
and flowers cover walls with loveliness, spread beauty on the 
stones, and bear rich fruit, upheld by the strength in the sunny 
front, but they are not the walls. Filled with the inspiration 
of a great brotherhood of men, each one of whom has done his 
part in making his country stronger, happier, or better, the whole 
Abbey is a vast and glorious monument of the union forming a 
great nation, eloquent in its sublime silence, as well as when 
the choir gives it a rhapsody of voice re-echoing through its 
aisles and soaring arches. Here, in a shrine of faith and 
doctrine, vital spirits of modern civilization no less than of 
religion, England guards the mortal remains of the sons who 
have crowned her, laid with the hope of that faith in the peace 
of Westminster. 



THE MONASTERIES. 1 

In the organization of the Church, monastic institutions had 
an important part for a long time in the Middle Ages, — a part 
second only to that of the bishoprics ; and in England they 
flourished about as long before the Reformation, and attained 
about as great relative power and wealth as they did where the 
Roman Church prevailed in the rest of Europe. 

The history of monasticism in the country stretches far 
back into the dim ages, earlier than when Augustine and Pau- 
linus and their associates or followers introduced the oldest of 
the great established Orders. In many places there were then 
communities of the religious, — notably at Glastonbury, where, 

1 See Dugdale, Sir W., Monasticon Anglicanum, 3 vols, folio, plates, London, 
1655, etc., and new enlarged edition by Caley, Ellis, and Bandinel, 6 vols, folio, 
1817-1830, and 1846. —Tanner, R. (Bp. St. Asaph), account of all the Abbeys, 
etc., in England, also Colleges and Hospitals, before 1540; folio, London, 1744; 
and new edition by J. Nasmitb, Cambridge, 1787. Also, Fosbroke, Rev. T. D., 
British Monachism, 8°, 1843 ; Hallam's Middle Ages ; Jameson's Legends of the 
Monastic Orders, 1852 ; and E. Edwards's Founders of Libraries, 1865. 



THE MONASTERIES. 245 

tradition says, Joseph of Arimathea came as a missionary. 
But the most ancient of the chief organizations, as it was the 
first in coming, continued to be first in power and good works 
until the end. 

St. Benedict, born about 480, founded one of the most en- 
during and illustrious societies the world has known. An 
enthusiast, a meditative, but an active man, he " dwelt with 
himself " at Subiaco, and made it a point of light near Rome, 
to become in time the cradle of the press in Italy. A few years 
later he went to Monte Cassino, where there still were heathen, 
whom he converted, and where he founded the illustrious mon- 
astery of the Order he created, — a monastery famous for thir- 
teen hundred years. The date of the introduction of this 
Order into England, and the history of its earlier development 
there, like that of all monasticism, are variously stated ; but its 
institutions had become important in the country during the 
Saxon period, although their great growth was after the Con- 
quest. The Benedictines had, finally, almost one half of the 
monastic revenues and most of the cathedral priories and 
great abbeys. At the Dissolution they are said to have had 
a hundred and thirteen establishments for men, and seventy- 
three for nuns, the total income of which was £65,877,14.0. 

Of the Orders sprung from the Benedictines and connec- 
tions with a different discipline, the Carthusians were founded 
in 1084 by St. Bruno at the Grande Chartreuse, 1 and the Cister- 
cians in 1114 by St. Bernard of Citeaux 2 at Clairvaux 2 (hence 
also called Bernardines), who were introduced from Normandy 
in 1128, and who had seventy-five abbeys (thirty-six of which 
were among the greater) and twenty-six nunneries, with an 
aggregate income at the Dissolution of £18,691,12.6. 

The Augustines, said to have been founded by the saint whose 
name they bear, were introduced into England about 1250. 
At the Dissolution they had about forty houses or establish- 
ments. Of Orders in some way derived from them or follow- 
ing them, the Black, or Dominican, Friars came in 1221, and 

1 Described by the author in his " Historical Monuments of France," pp. 
53-56. 

2 See the same, pp. 304 and 305. 



246 THE MONASTERIES. 

finally bad fifty-eight houses ; the Crossed, or Crutched, Friars 
(1244) had six or seven houses ; and the Friars of the Holy 
Trinity (1224) had eleven houses. 

The Gray, or Franciscan, Friars, founded by St. Francis of 
Assisi, came between 1219 and 1224, and had sixty-six houses ; 
and the Nuns of the Order of St. Clare, who came about 1293, 
and were also Franciscan, had four houses. In 1240 the Car- 
melites, or White Friars, came from Palestine to England, and 
there and in Wales had forty houses. Each of the minor orders 
of Bethlemite Friars (1257), Friars de Pica and Friars de 
Aveno, had but one house in the country. 

The Foreign Orders, that might be called colonies from two 
of the French, were subject and tributary to their chief estab- 
lishments upon the Continent. About 1078 the Cluniacs, Bene- 
dictines from the great Burgundian abbey or its branches, were 
introduced, and by 1222 had forty-two establishments. Both 
the superiors and a majority of the monks were Frenchmen, 
who sent large sums to their masters and associates in France, 
— a subjection to a foreign rule that did not entirely cease 
until 1457. The Premonstratensians, Augustines reformed by 
St. Norbert, instituted about 1120 at Premontre in Picardy, 
on a place shown by the Virgin (and hence named Pratum 
Monstratum, or Pre-montrc), were also called White Canons, 
from their long white cloaks and white caps. About 1140 
they were introduced into England, where they were tribu- 
tary to the parent houses until 1307, and subject otherwise 
until 1512. At the Dissolution they had about thirty-five 
houses. 

The influence of these numerous establishments of active 
and wealthy Orders, governed by men of genius, piety, or learn- 
ing*, or of all combined, and flourishing conspicuously through 
more than three centuries, was very great, and is still evident. 
As Mrs. Jameson says, the introduction of the Benedictines 
into England was a memorable era in the history of the coun- 
try — " of far more importance than the advent of a king or 
the change of a dynasty." They were among its notable hu- 
manizers and civilizers. Mr. Hallam, on the other hand, 
writes of monastic vices, and Mr. Fosbroke says much more 



THE MONASTERIES. 247 

upon the subject. But while human nature was the same, and 
beliefs and circumstances differed widely from our own, the 
monks carried to new, and often wild or needy, regions Chris- 
tianity as it was known, and meditative life as it was possible, 
along with a knowledge of the useful arts of husbandry and of 
the finer arts of building. Besides practising all these as few 
other men then did or could, they to the same extent maintained 
charities, guest-houses, and infirmaries. Meanwhile, both nu- 
merous and rich, and with the weaknesses of mortality, it is not 
strange that cases of decline or fall occurred, or that they did 
not thoroughly adapt their practices to changing life and con- 
ditions. But still they left their centuries of history to show 
how they had lived and worked through a long and awful 
period of turmoil, through the wild passions and peculiar 
vices of a far less educated age than ours. They had been 
first in carrying cultivation and fine arts to many a part of 
England ; they built God's house as few wise moderns ever 
have ; and within the precincts of their establishments were 
the first printing-presses in the land. 

If they were not reformers of a certain sort, they gathered 
libraries which persons of another sort stole or destroyed. 
" To whatever extent," says Mr. Edwards, " these collections 
may have suffered dilapidation and loss when they had the 
misfortune to belong to unfaithful and ignorant communities, 
there is entire concurrence as to their great aggregate value 
even at the time of the Dissolution. Ardent Reformers agree 
with sturdy Romanists in lamenting the gross neglect which 
suffered them, for the most part, to perish." Read the cata- 
logues of some of these collections ; read the testimony of John 
Bale himself ; find what these gathered treasures were ; hear 
the apologists of barbarism, — and then feel a righteous indig- 
nation at one of the most disgraceful passages in English 
history. " I judge," says Bale, who had his part in the Dis- 
solution, " I judge this to be true, and utter it with heaviness, 
— that neither the Britons under the Romans and Saxons, nor 
yet the English people under the Danes and Normans, had ever 
such damage of their learned monuments as we have seen in 
our time." 



248 THE MONASTERIES. 

Proofs almost numberless remain in volumes scattered from 
the Continental monasteries in recent years to show how both 
before and a long while after the Reformation the monks saved 
early books ; and while such relics of the English treasures are 
more rare, there is strong evidence that the same good care 
was shown in Britain. As preservers of manuscripts and 
printed works, no less than as teachers of agriculture and as 
masters of exquisite mediaeval art, the monks deserve both 
thanks and praise. They share with the clergy in the glory of 
founding Christian institutions in the country, and of main- 
taining them there during many centuries. To what extent 
both they and the clergy taught from the Bible, — the founda- 
tion of their faith, — may not be clearly known. In Britain 
the arts did not produce such texts and commentaries as the 
marvellous groups of sculptured figures or intricate reliefs in 
which France put full in sight before the people the great story 
of the Book and its doctrines. While, indeed, there were Eng- 
lish mural paintings, as at Westminster (p. 241), there was 
nothing to compare with the precious works at Florence, Padua, 
and Assisi, and no mosaics like those of St. Mark's glorified 
the country while they taught the people. Furthermore, the 
sacred Word was not printed in England until long after it was 
common in several languages on the Continent. 1 How, indeed, 
the Bible was shown to other than learned Englishmen before 
1530, is a subject for inquiry. 

The dissolution of the monasteries was effected by com- 
plex causes, first among which, it is likely, were the passions 
and policy of Henry VIII., supported by the rapacity of court- 
iers and subjects tempted by an immense amount of property 

1 The Testament of Tyndale dates from Antwerp in 1534, and the Cover- 
dale Bible probably from the same place one year later, and not from South- 
wark, on English ground, until 1536. The first German Bible dates from about 
1466, the Italian (part at least) from 1471, the Dutch Old Testament and the 
French New Testament from 1477, and the Bohemian Bible from 1488. The 
number of Latin Bibles printed on the Continent in the fifteenth century was 
very large. Caxton printed a great part of the Pentateuch and Gospels in 
England in the Golden Legend, 1483, half a century before the vernacular Bible 
appeared ; and it has been thought that he thus provided important aid to the 
Information. See Stevens, H., The Bibles in the Caxton Exhibition, London, 
1877, 8°, 1878. 



THE MONASTERIES. 249 

belonging to institutions that had lived beyond their earlier 
usefulness and had not met all the needs of an altered period. 
Abuses had arisen and were found that gave an appearance 
of reason for extermination, and cupidity could be gratified ; 
consequently less of actual reformation followed than of sup- 
pression, seizure, and almost general pillage. While the Church 
maintained the most precious possession of the monasteries, — 
the religious spirit, — she providentially preserved much of in- 
calculable value in the arts, and some part of material things 
important for her just maintenance. But rapine and neglect 
fell with cruel hands upon the many wonderful old monuments 
of former Christian life. Not only were the results deplorable 
for art, history, and literature, but far more for the waste of 
opportunities to reform magnificent foundations and adapt 
them to other needs of the changed and reformed establish- 
ment. Yet English wisdom, through the storm, saved much. 
The country was not swept, like Scotland, by well-nigh utter 
destruction of buildings that could ill be spared, or despoiled, 
as was France at a later period. Some of the noblest monas- 
tic churches were made cathedrals, — already described on these 
pages, — and others, in part or entire, were kept in repair and 
use by parishes, while important buildings of different sorts 
were retained, and are still kept, connected with episcopal seats, 
as at Wells and Durham ; but no ancient abbey is left com- 
plete. In most cases the venerable memorials of Christianity, 
for nearly a thousand years in the land, forsaken and stripped, 
began to change and fade from their once superb estate into a 
quick or slow disintegration, that leaves them, as too often 
they now are, the crumbling wrecks and passing shadows, 
lovely even in decay and final dissolution, scattered in the an- 
cient towns and fairest vales of England. 

When the monasteries were most opulent and flourishing 
in England, the Pointed styles prevailed, and were almost 
exclusively used in the buildings, which were not only very 
numerous, but often of great size and beauty. One of their 
chief characteristics, indeed, was beauty, remarkable even if 
compared with what is found in many similar works on the 
Continent. Splendors as wonderful as those at Pavia, or 



250 THE MONASTERIES. 

Monte Cassino, or the vastness of Cluny, or marvellous clois- 
ters like some in Spain and Italy, were not shown; but often 
stateliness, and very frequently an exquisite picturcsqucness. 
While the cities and towns contained a large number of mo- 
nastic establishments, there were many scattered throughout the 
rural parts of the country, and not a few of these were among 
the most important, and so far as we can now judge, the most 
beautiful. While also the quiet features of English scenery 
could not help to form such grand effects as may be found 
in views of Italian monasteries, there are groups with a calm 
loveliness seldom seen, nestled in. peaceful, charming vales, 
especially of Yorkshire and the southwestern counties. 

In the arrangement of the several parts needed to complete 
an establishment, there was a similarity of plan in the large 
monasteries, adopted also in the smaller as circumstances per- 
mitted, that can be better understood by reference to the plan 
of Fountains Abbey (p. 257). In a large walled enclosure, 
entered through a gateway beside a porter's lodge, was an ex- 
tensive group of buildings, covering several acres, surrounding 
a square cloister, north of which was the church ; east the 
chapter-house and abbot's house ; south, the kitchen, dining- 
room, and parlor for the monks ; west, their dormitories (and 
at Fountains, an unusual covered cloister), and farther on, a 
hospital and refuge for the poor. Many as were the parts, 
and great as was the size of such a group, it was even more 
remarkable for the graceful art and learned skill shown in its 
construction. To the chief relics of these ancient marvels, 
now broken, mouldering, yet still beautiful, we turn for sug- 
gestions, not dimly given, of the history of generations of de- 
voted men who, when these slowly disintegrating edifices were 
fresh and strong, served God by such light as their times sup- 
plied. We can find, whatever their errors, how severely these 
were expiated, and render something of justice to the memories 
of thousands who lie defenceless, mingled with the green turf 
in their loved but now lonely cloisters. 

First, we turn to one of the most ancient abbeys, that of 
Glastonbury. 1 

1 See Vetusta Monumenta, vol. iv., text, and plates 28-38. 



GLASTONBUKY ABBEY. 251 

" O three times famous isle, where is that place that might 
Be with thyself compar'd for glory and delight, 
Whilst Glastonbury stood, exalted to that pride, 
Whose Monastery seem'd all others to deride ? 
O, who thy ruin sees, whom wonder doth not fill 
With our great fathers' pomp, devotion, and their skill? . . . 
. . . not Great Arthur's tomb, nor Holy Joseph's grave, 
From sacrilege had power their sacred bones to save. . . . 
What! did so many kings do honour to that place 
For avarice, at last, so vilely to deface? " 

Dkayton, Poly-olbion. 

" The ancient isle of Avalon," like Thorney and Ely, was 
originally a spot surrounded by woods, marshes, and wild coun- 
try. Tradition tells us that the Druids lived in its shadowy 
groves, and that Joseph of Arimathea visited it as a mission- 
ary ; hut with much more certainty we know that his name and 
acts were particularly venerated there throughout the Middle 
Ages. Christianity was not known in Britain until after the 
accession of the Emperor Claudius (a. d. 41) ; yet its earliest 
preachers probably came during the first century, and some of 
them we may suppose visited Avalon. In 415, monks had 
established themselves there, so that St. Patrick is said to 
have been made the first abbot of a monastery, already founded, 
which was maintained during the following 1114 years under 
the rule of his fifty-nine successors. While its history was 
one of the most extended of any of the kind in the country, 
its buildings were repeatedly changed. The earlier were re- 
placed by others in the Norman style between 1116 and 1120 ; 
but in 1184 a large part of them were burned, and a new church, 
at once begun and completed by the end of the century, was 
much injured by an earthquake in 1276. It was not until the 
last half of the fourteenth century that the final and most prom- 
inent church was completed, a cross-shaped edifice, about 540 
feet long, in Early English. Earlier in the same century the 
hall and chapter-house appear to have been begun, and to have 
been finished later, as also were the dormitory and the clois- 
ters, which were about 140 feet square. Continuously, and 
almost to the Dissolution, there were repairs and various ad- 
ditions. An end to all saving care came when the last abbot, 



252 THE MONASTERIES. 

Richard Whyting (1524-1539), " a man of irreproachable life 
and fervent piety," refused to surrender his great trust, and 
was hanged, and then quartered on Tor Hill, and " his head 
was placed over the Abbey gate at Glastonbury." 

When the Abbey was suppressed, it covered nearly forty 
acres, and its revenue was £3,508. Its monks were dispersed, 
and their " possessions were scattered with lavish injustice," 
says a local historian. Among its treasures was the library 
which the learned John Leland saw in its glory, and of which 
he thought " such a spectacle could scarcely be seen elsewhere 
in Britain" (Edwards, Memoirs, 113). It contained a great 
number of Bibles, expositions, ancient classic works, volumes 
of Patristic literature, and chronicles, of all which there are 
now few vestiges. 

The Abbey stood at the side of a small quaint rural town, 
from which its grounds reached southward, blending with 
farming lands, pastures, and hills extending far through the 
surrounding country. Peacefully secluded in this simple neigh- 
borhood, the old home of the monks must have been peculiarly 
imposing, for it would have been grand anywhere. Scattered 
in fields and faintly showing what it once was, are its frag- 
ments, — a little of the east end of the church, with the south 
wall of the choir aisle, the east arch of the central tower and 
the adjoining bays of the transept, four bays of the south 
wall of the nave, and the west door. Beyond the door are 
parts of a structure that reached to the oldest of the buildings, 
the oblong chapel of St. Joseph of Arimathea, four bays in 
length, and designed in beautiful Norman Transition. Although 
the vaults are broken, the walls are still so uninjured that not 
long ago it could have been put in condition for services. Now, 
almost the whole of its crypt is open to the sky, and luxuriant 
ivy drapes it and tries to hide what the wrath of man has done 
to the noble work of his ancient piety ; but the strong, though 
coarse stone that formed the chapel is, where unmutilated by 
human violence, well preserved, and shows what the venerable 
shrine once was and should have remained. 

The chanted hymn and prayer are hushed upon the spot for 
centuries venerated as the site of the first Christian church in 



GLASTONBURY ABBEY. 253 

Britain, and storms sweep like requiems through the broken 
arches around it, or the swallows, when the sunshine comes, 
seem to try with their simple notes to fill the place with 
melody. Henry VIII. has answered which is the better 
music. 

The least injured portion of the Abbey, standing like a grim 
satire, is the Abbot's Kitchen, built, in the first half of the fif- 
teenth century, at a considerable distance west of the church, 
on ground now a pasture, where it still rises, dark and solid, 
among fragments of structures once connected with it. On 
the outside the lower part is square, and the upper part octag- 
onal, and capped by a tall conical roof, all of good masonry, 
in which small squared blocks are used for facings, and little 
broken stones, or rubble, for the filling, both of them laid in 
strong cement. An impressive idea of the wants of the 
institution is given by the great size of the interior, and by 
four fireplaces, at as many angles, each of them large enough 
to hold an ox for roasting. High overhead is a vaulting, cen- 
tring in a double lantern, and grand enough for a modern 
state-house. 

One of the most ancient buildings spared at Glastonbury is 
also one of the most curious public-houses in England, the 
George Inn, built by Abbot Selwood in 1475. Its front, still 
kept in good repair, is constructed of gray stone in Perpendicu- 
lar style, tall panels, several of which form days of windows, 
covering the walls, and battlements and turrets screening the 
roof. Although the old courtyard, common to early inns, is 
retained, the interior of the house has been remodelled ; and 
the writer found accommodations there that are undoubtedly 
better than were those obtained by mediaeval pilgrims. 

Tor Hill, a large isolated height more than a mile from the 
town, is notable for associations with religious and other his- 
tory, and for the view it commands. It is crowned by the gray 
stone tower of a church dedicated to St. Michael, but destroyed 
as long ago as 1276 by the earthquake which then damaged the 
Abbey. There seems to have been a very early camp on it, 
and a place of worship by primitive Christians, as well as by 
others through the monkish period ; and on it was enacted the 



254 THE MONASTERIES. 

judicial murder of the last of the abbots. Few wide views in 
southwestern England surpass that commanded from the crest, 
a prospect of great beauty and extent sweeping far around a 
horizon consisting mostly of broad, yet not high, verdant hills, 
seen over a middle distance of green, peaceful farming country, 
marked by few large towns, none of them more prominent than 
Wells. In the wide stretch of the West of England visible are 
regions from northern Somerset to Dorset and perhaps to 
Devon, and from the confines of Wilts to the sea off the 
mouth of the Severn. 

Yorkshire 1 contained exceptionally numerous and interesting 
monastic institutions, — indeed it might be called the Burgundy 
of England, the part of the country where there was an un- 
usual number of these edifices, often of great magnificence and 
beauty. Severe as has been the devastation in the Ridings, 
they have suffered less than did the French duchy. There yet 
stands Fountains, the largest and least-injured abbey in Eng- 
land ; Bolton is well cared for in its peaceful vale ; while Kirk- 
stall, similarly placed, re-echoes the loud rattle and shrill shriek 
of passing trains ; Whitby looks out on the broad blue Ger- 
man Ocean ; Selby is ennobled by its vast grand church, entire 
and useful, — a monument of a true reformation ; St. Mary's at 
York, already mentioned, is in the town, where its carefully 
preserved fragments demonstrate how wild was the hate and 
soulless the greed of former generations ; in pleasant Wensley 
Dale are the remains of the once fine Cistercian Jorvaulx, that 
recently showed clearly its old plan and walls, harmed by few 
other hands than those of Time. Scattered, indeed, through- 
out the three Ridings are crumbling relics of works of ancient 
piety and art, many of which can hardly be more than men- 
tioned in these pages. The historian, traveller, or artist will 

1 The Monastic Ruins of Yorkshire, from drawings by Wm. Richardson, 
architect, with Historical Descriptions by Rev. Edward Churton, atlas folio, 
2 vols., York, 1843, — one of the most magnificent English books of local 
illustration, picturesque as well as architectural. Some copies are illumi- 
nated, of which the writer has one. — See also Vetusta Monumenta, i., plates 
9-12 ; Grainge's Castles and Abbeys of Yorkshire, 8°, 1855 ; and Lefroy's Etch- 
ings of do., folio, 1882. 



YORKSHIRE. — FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 255 

probably go first to the delightful and majestic ruin guarded 
faithfully by the Marquis of Ripon. 

Fountains Abbey. In October, 1132, the prior, sub-prior, 
and about a dozen monks of St. Mary's Abbey, York, with- 
drew from the Benedictine Order to follow a rule that they 
believed was stricter and better. A few months later, in mid- 
winter, the archbishop assigned to them a tract of wild land 
in Skell Dale, three miles west of Ripon, a spot that " was fit- 
ter for the retreat of wild beasts than the habitation of men," 
for " it was surrounded on all sides with rocks, wood, and bram- 
bles, and had never been either cultivated or inhabited," says 
Grose. But there a great Cistercian abbey was to rise. At 
first the monks found shelter only under several yew-trees, 
where, in poverty and great privation, they lived for two 
years, subsisting sometimes on wild herbs boiled with a little 
salt ; and yet, meanwhile, their number was doubled. Sym- 
pathy for them was roused in Hugh, Dean of York, and then 
in Serlo and Tosti, canons who gave them much property, 
which was increased by sundry barons. In 1204 the church 
was founded, and, with the cloisters, infirmary, and hospital, 
was finished within forty years ; but towards the end of the 
century the monks again became poor, and later suffered from 
the inroads of the Scots. A second great increase of their pos- 
sessions, however, followed, so that at the Dissolution they had 
revenues amounting to .£1,125. Closing their long history was 
the fate of Thirsk, the last real abbot, who was hanged in 
January, 1537, making way for a successor apparently a mere 
agent of the king, who surrendered Fountains, November 26, 
1540, and received a pension of £100. 

The drive from Ripon to the Abbey is a pleasant one, across 
a broad rise of ground, and for a mile through the park of 
Studley Royal. There what is called the " long walk " leads 
through two miles of beauty, the latter part of the way beside 
an artificial lake and up the steep and thickly wooded banks 
that border it, to a small building on the brow of a hill, whence 
is an outlook named truthfully, The Surprise. Two doors 
towards the west are suddenly thrown open, and one of the 



256 THE MONASTERIES. 

loveliest views in England is disclosed. Far down the vista of 
the heights, the forests, and the placid water of the charming 
vale, is seen a light-green lawn, upon the left of which is the 
small brown rippling Swale. Out of this exquisite setting, 
like an antique relic in its shrine, rises the long, gray, vener- 
able eastern front of Fountains Abbey, at its right a great 
tower on the north end of the transept, in the centre the 
immense arch of the shattered chancel window, wooded 
banks close on each side, and lofty trees in the background. 
All the grace that many years of culture can impart to na- 
tive beauty is shown there, intensifying a conception of the 
labors of the monks who in this vale found and subdued a 
wilderness. 

The Abbey, says Mr. Bigland, 1 occupied ten or twelve acres 
of ground, " of which about two acres are covered by the pres- 
ent ruins. . . . No depredation has been wantonly committed 
on the sacred pile ; time alone has brought it to its present 
state : it has fallen by a gentle decay." Notwithstanding this 
statement, that contains much truth, there seems to be evi- 
dence that the decay was long ago hastened by work of human 
hands. A great deal of the Abbey, however, remains, and at 
no other place in England can we more clearly understand the 
arrangement and administration of a great monastic institu- 
tion, shown, so far as can be, by the accompanying plan (from 
Grose's Antiquities, vi., 1797). 

The approach should be from the west through an opening 
in the wall, that once enclosed about a hundred acres ; and the 
extensive ancient courtyard will then be entered over the site 
of the great gateway that was destroyed long ago. An im- 
pressive realization of a grand English monastery is at once 
obtained. Towards the east, and opposite the gate, is seen the 
west front of the church, across which was a beautiful Norman 
porch and arcade. Extending to the right for three hundred 
feet is a two-storied structure that contained the dormitory, 

1 The dimensions given by him are as follows, — the church is 351 feet long, 
and the transept 186 feet; the refectory, 108x45; the dormitory and cloister, 
300x42; the chapter-house, 84X42; the cloister garden, 120 feet square; the 
great tower, 166 feet 6 inches high and 24 feet square. 




fXJ^i 




FOUNTAINS, THE TOWER. 



YOEKSHIEE. — FOUNTAINS ABBEY. 257 

built above a peculiar cloister ; still farther at the right, the 
little river Skell flows with a pleasant murmur, and near it are 
two large buildings admirably constructed of stone, in excel- 
lent Pointed style, with vaulted rooms. These, and another 
similar edifice adjoining, and built over the river, were the 
hospital and almonry, or chapel for the poor, who could be ad- 
mitted without entering the parts of the Abbey devoted wholly 
to the monks. All this array of ruins has grown gray, but 
has a varied coloring given by whitish lichens on some parts 
(especially the east end of the transept), and by shrubbery that 
crests the walls, or by thick veils of ivy, some of the most 
luxuriant of which, however, has been removed of late, as it 
was injuring the walls. 

The interior of the church presents a nave with eleven bays 
of low round massive pillars, bearing transitional Pointed 
arches and a plain clerestory with one-dayed round-arched 
windows. These parts are less injured than usual, although 
the walls of the latter lean inward, but not so much as to en- 
danger their security. Mere fragments of the pillars that sup- 
ported the great central tower remain. The transept, much 
like the nave in style, has an uncommon distinction in an ele- 
gant but massive tower at the north end, a noble Perpendicu- 
lar design, completed only a few years before the Dissolution. 
It is roofless, and the ascent is said to be unsafe ; yet all of the 
walls and decorations are still little injured. Finer than some 
of the cathedral towers were five and twenty years ago, it re- 
quires less restoration. Both the choir and a second transept 
(that forms the east end) are Early English, with sharp, lancet 
windows, and single or clustered Purbeck shafts, but few of 
which are left. The ends of this transept are separated from 
the choir by pairs of very lofty and unusual arches, and at the 
east end of the choir is the arch of a vast window still stand- 
ing, but deprived of its once elaborate tracery. More impor- 
tant losses are those of the arcade of the choir and all the 
roofs. If, however, the latter could be replaced, even by a 
light wooden covering, and the minor windows could be glazed, 
it seems as if little more would be required to make the nave 
fit for service. 

17 



258 THE MONASTERIES. 

The Dormitory, of which the walls are standing, was reached 
by a stone stairway at the west end of the church, where also 
a door gives access to the Cloister, still entire, on the ground 
floor. It is a vast hall, through the centre of which is a range 
of seventeen low clustered pillars, bearing a groined-ribbed 
ceiling, and forming a double aisle, lighted at the side, and 
presenting a noble and picturesque effect. Here many a gene- 
ration of the monks walked, talked, or labored; in the spacious 
hall above, they slept, and by the worn stone stair went to the 
nightly services held in the choir. The chapter-house, a large 
oblong room, in the usual position, close to the south end 
of the transept, was vaulted ; but the roof, as well as many 
other parts, is now an utter ruin. Originally there was a second 
story, containing the Scriptorium, or library. Along the south 
side of an area like that commonly used for cloisters are the 
Kitchen, one of the least injured rooms in the Abbey, the Re- 
fectory, a large hall with pillars in the centre, and the Locu- 
torium, or parlor for the monks. When silence was required 
elsewhere, a room like this would be provided, and guests had 
still another room for conversation. The Abbot's Rouse, which 
was very large, is represented by its outlines or foundations, 
uncovered a considerable time ago, showing that it had a vast 
hall bordered by an aisle and a peristyle of round pillars en- 
closing a large space in the centre, where a great dinner could 
be given. There was another hall, appropriated to guests, and 
various apartments were arranged much as they would be in 
an extensive country mansion. 

Fountains Hall stands near the Abbey, with the history, as 
well as the stones, of which it is connected, for it is constructed 
of the latter. Henry VIII. sold the estate to Sir Richard Gresh- 
am, who in turn sold it to Sir Stephen Procter, and he built 
the already ancient-looking Hall. Although a picturesque Eliza- 
bethan edifice, it is a poor substitute for the more interesting 
structures of the Abbey, pulled down to furnish its materials. 

The most ancient monuments at Fountains, however, are 
works of Nature, — a group of enormous yew-trees that the 
writer saw. They looked upon the Hall when it was built, 
upon the Abbey when that was despoiled, suppressed, and in 



YORKSHIRE. — BOLTON PRIORY. 259 

its glory ; they saw its four centuries of life from maturity 
back to birth, and under their then already ample branches, 
more than seven hundred years ago, they sheltered the few 
monks who came in poverty and suffering to establish Christ- 
ian institutions in a wilderness that has grown, in no slight 
degree by their help, to a garden full of beauty. While the 
Cistercians here were men, and had their sins, they as certainly 
were builders and improvers, not iconoclasts ; and we may well 
feel how much is due them for the glory as well as the les- 
sons in devotion gathered in the lovely vale around the moss- 
grown stones of Fountains. 

Bolton Priory and the scenery around it are celebrated 
among the beauties of England, and are reached by drives 
almost as interesting, whether the route is up the valley of 
the Wharfe from Ilkley, or across an open hilly country from 
Skipton. Although little else than portions of the once exten- 
sive and imposing walls of the monastic enclosure and parts of 
the church remain, the latter is well worth seeing. Its nave, 
in use, and choir and transept, now in ruin, stand on a little 
promontory close above the river and in the midst of a pleas- 
ant vale that, if less lovely than the vale at Fountains or that 
at Tintern, is yet of great beauty. Broad wooded Yorkshire 
hills enclose it, and the old monastic quiet lingers in the 
peaceful scene that they seem to be guarding from the busy 
world beyond them. 

The Priory belonged to the Augustines, and was founded in 
1220 by Cecilia de Romelli, baroness of Skipton, and William 
de Mechines, her husband, whose only son, according to report, 
was drowned in The Strid, a fissure at no great distance, through 
which the Wharfe rushes. In 1151 the Priory, which had been 
begun near Skipton, was removed to Bolton, and there flour- 
ished until the Dissolution, when the net income was £212. 
The estate, maintained in admirable order, belongs to the Dukes 
of Devonshire, who inherited it from the Earl of Cumberland, 
to whom it was granted after the suppression. 

The church was cruciform and not lofty, and consists now, 
as already stated, of a ruined choir and transept, and a nave 



260 THE MONASTERIES. 

that is in excellent condition, and is used for parish services. 
Its west front, dating from 1290, is Early English, and has a 
portal and three equal lancet windows. Placed in a peculiar 
way directly before it, is a huge tower in Perpendicular style 
that, although it is said to be the result of twenty years' labor 
under the last prior, was built only about as high as the gable 
of the nave. If it had been completed, it would have shown 
a grand and beautiful design with few rivals in the country. 
Internally the nave, covered by a modern roof of very dark 
timber, shows an aisle on the north side and a low arcade of 
four bays ; but on the south side there is only a wall, blank 
below and pierced in the upper part by six tall windows that 
are filled with new rich-colored glass. The east end is a mere 
wall, relieved by tracery, on the grounds of which are flowers 
finely designed and painted by a lady in the ducal family. 

East of the nave the writer found that of the transept (two- 
bayed at each end), the western walls and the north gable, with 
the eastern arcade and triforium attached to it, were standing. 
All the east side and end of the southern arm have been de- 
stroyed. A large part of the five-bayed choir, where there were 
no aisles, is also preserved, including the east gable, that con- 
tains the arch of a huge pointed window, from which all the 
tracery is broken. Along the base of the sides is an arcade, 
above which are tall windows that have also lost their tracery. 
There was a central tower ; but nothing is left of it above the 
keystones of the four pointed arches on which it rested. Amid 
the pleasant ground around the church is a grass-grown burial- 
place close to the north side of the choir, containing many 
monuments, most of which are very modern. 

Bolton Hall — built of buff sandstone in a sort of castellated 
Gothic style, it may be added — is near the west front of the 
Priory. The natural features of the neighborhood are cele- 
brated, especially the charming vale of the Wharfe. Gentle 
slopes, on which are grouped or scattered trees, dense ferns, or 
shrubbery, extend back from the stream that dashes musically 
over stones. Two miles beyond the Priory it traverses a ledge 
of rock much broken on the surface or covered with thick, very 
dark, and even blackish mosses. There, for some distance, 



YORKSHIRE. — KIRKSTALL ABBEY. 261 

the water has worn a way in a fissure two to six feet wide, 
below the edge of which the surface of the stream recedes from 
two to ten feet in the summer. During freshets, or the spring, 
the water fills the fissure and extends across the ledge. This 
is The Strid ; and though exaggeration by some writers makes 
one disappointed at its size, it is unusually romantic. About 
two miles beyond is Barden Tower, half castle and half manor- 
house, built in domestic Tudor Gothic. A large part of its 
gray heavy walls remain, but nearly all the roofs and floors are 
gone. Standing on a hill-side fronting towards the vale, and 
surrounded by remains of a wall, the views of it, as well as 
from it, are extremely pleasing, including, as the latter do, a 
long reach down the vale through scenery that, although wild 
for England, is quiet and on a small scale, blending with culti- 
vation close around, and yet in the old English way, exquisitely 
picturesque. Associations with well-known poetry invest it 
with charms, so that the trees seem to be hardly less apparent 
than the creations of the poets. 

Kirkstall Abbey stands, a few miles west of Leeds, in a 
broad vale, still grass-grown, and here and there shaded by old 
trees. At one side rises its large group of ruins, deep sober 
gray in color, overlooked by a tall shattered tower. Around 
them linger some of the pleasantest associations with the 
Middle Ages ; but east of them a larger group of ugly earth- 
brown factories is growing nearer, and on each side the frequent 
railway trains, with their loud shriek and rattle, hurry by, sug- 
gesting a very different present. While the busy modern world 
requires the ground of the monks, it still spares the fragments 
of their beautiful and stately home, that it leaves surrounded 
by green fields, large trees, and a pretty garden. 

Kirkstall — church place — appears, says Mr. Churton, " to 
have been so named by the hermits, probably of Saxon race, 
who were found dwelling in this retired valley of the Aire, with 
their cells surrounding their low-roofed chapel, before the 
monks from Fountains . . . brought hither a colony," in 
May, 1152 or 1153, as some say. At first the monks endured 
extreme privations ; but before the close of the twelfth century 



262 THE MONASTERIES. 

the church and the chief buildings of the Abbey were completed 
in the style of that time, Transition Norman. The history of 
the institution seems to have been one of quiet tenor. In 1301 
the monks had so far prospered that they owned 216 oxen, 160 
cows, 242 other cattle, and 4000 sheep and lambs, while they 
had debts of only ,£160 ; and at the suppression (November, 
1540) they had a revenue stated to have been £329, or £512. 
Since that time the estate has been held by a variety of persons. 

The buildings of the Abbey are among the least injured that 
remain in Yorkshire, and the area they cover is large, for it is 
said to measure 340 feet from north to south, and 445 feet from 
east to west. Although the walls are thick and have shown 
great endurance, they do not seem to have been well bonded, 
and the filling was rubble laid in a mortar, that grows powdery 
where it is uncovered. They are faced with small squared 
blocks of a coarse yellowish sandstone that grows hard, or 
here and there disintegrates upon the surf ace, which has ac- 
quired a deep sober gray color, varied with sandy yellow or a 
rusty black, according to exposure to the weather. 

The church is still comparatively entire ; yet while the gene- 
ral preservation is good, the east end has been of late marked 
" dangerous." A large part of the western front, the outer walls, 
both ends of the transept, the chancel, six western bays on the 
north side of the nave and all on the south side, are standing, 
as also is the south side of the central tower, the other parts 
of which fell in January, 1779. In plan, the choir has no aisles, 
and in each arm of the transept, in place of them, are three 
eastern chapels ; while in design it is noticed that nearly all 
the windows are small, single dayed, and round arched, and 
that the very large east window, as well as the main arcade and 
the arches of the central tower, are pointed. A great deal of 
the stone-work is still smooth ; but the color, like that on the 
exterior, has become sombre. Around the area of the cloisters, 
the vaulted chapter-house is standing, as are the outer walls of 
the square, now little broken ; but the arcade has disappeared. 
There was also a hall-like cloister similar to that at Fountains, 
which, like several buildings at the south, is much injured. 
Nearly all parts of the Abbey show a design of simple dignity, 



YORKSHIRE. — WHITBY ABBEY. 263 

with details, as for instance on the north and west doors of the 
church, that are worthy of careful observation. Mr. Churton 
well says that perhaps no other church in such a situation is 
" so capable of restoration, . . . and one may be allowed to 
entertain the hope that the wealth which has grown up around 
the site of the old religious home may one day find its exercise 
in a work that would give to the surrounding district a church 
capable of receiving a greater multitude of spiritual worship- 
pers than monk or hermit ever pictured in their dreams." 

Whitby Abbey. An agreeable excursion can be made from 
York to the old town of Whitby, on the sea-shore, where the 
shattered fragments of its once noble and imposing Abbey look 
from a high bluff upon the inland hills and far across the broad 
blue waters. 

In 658 St. Hilda, niece of Edwin, " the first Christian 
king of Northumbria," began to build here one of the earliest 
monastic institutions in the north of England. She taught 
justice, piety, and charity, opposed the extension of the papal 
power in the country, and was renowned for learning and 
discretion in an age of rudeness and warfare. Her fame, 
great in her life, continued many centuries, and even now has 
not lost all its brightness. Literature as well as religion flour- 
ished near her, and Csedmon, the pious Saxon bard, lived in her 
Abbey, and died in the same year with her, 680. In time the 
church became " the Westminster of the Northumbrians," — 
a place for the burial of the most distinguished ; yet it suf- 
fered, like many other places, from the fury of the heathen 
Danes. Little else of its history for a long time seems to be 
known, until at length the Benedictines, in the latter part of 
the eleventh century, began to restore it from the utter ruin 
into which it had then fallen. About 1130 the work had been 
accomplished " in a humble way, such as the time allowed, but 
scarcely presented a slight vestige of its old magnificence." Yet 
such as it was, we are glad to find that some of it still remains. 
Again the monks were reduced to " abject poverty " by Nor- 
wegians, who came many years later, and again reconstruction 
was begun. Abbot Roger de Scarborough (1222 to 1244) 



264 THE MONASTEEIES. 

appears to have then built a large part of the church in Early 
English, the style that was prevailing. To this several win- 
dows and the western front were added in Decorated, dating, it 
is thought, from the last half of the fourteenth century. For a 
long period the history of the Abbey was uneventful, and closed 
with its suppression in 1539, since which time all the monastic 
buildings and a large part of the church have been destroyed. 

The church stands on a long bare ridge, the East Cliff, 
between the German Ocean and the Eske, where the river 
curves quickly around the northern end of the height, and 
close at its base forms a small harbor. Few abbeys in the 
country have such a commanding site. Standing boldly on it, 
and seen far and wide, the pale-gray walls, although reduced 
in height and badly shattered, rise prominent above everything 
else in the town, and show how mediaeval piety built as no other 
human agency has done in that vicinity. A path, ascending 
about two hundred steps, leads to the summit of the ridge, 
passing on the way the parish church, a low and dark-gray 
building that was Norman and Perpendicular, but that is 
now hideous with modern alterations, and in dismal contrast 
with the exquisite design of the wasted abbatial church. Of 
the ample and noble home for worship created by the monks, 
and left by them to become a grand opportunity lost by suc- 
ceeding owners, the east end, the clerestory of the seven- 
bayed choir and its northeastern aisle, and the north end of 
the transept, are the chief parts spared. These are superb 
examples of Early English, mixed, especially in the clerestory, 
with late Norman. On the exterior of the two standing gables 
the design is unusually elegant. Although so small a portion 
of the structure has been saved from utter ruin, no unimpor- 
tant part of what is left, the northern outer wall of the choir, 
seems to be now in a precarious condition. It was as late as 
June, 1830, when the central tower fell, and made a high mound 
of broken masonry, overgrown with grass and weeds, that marks 
its site. Some fragments of the north side of the nave, to- 
gether with the west front, remain ; but the latter is badly worn. 
So strong was the masonry that large masses, like conglomer- 
ate, have still clung together, although they have fallen from a 



YORKSHIRE. — SELBY. 265 

great height. On the outside of the church, the stones, squared 
and similar in size to those used in York Minster, are laid in 
courses of irregular thickness, and the seams, are large, while 
the filling of the walls is formed of pebbles and strong mortar. 
When entire, the church had the dimensions as well as grandeur 
and beauty of a cathedral, — certainly one of the second class, 
for it was 300 feet long, the nave was 69 feet wide and 60 feet 
high, and the length of the transept, 150 feet, was the same as 
the height of the central tower. With a beauty worthy of its 
grand seat above the sea and the broad Yorkshire hills, and in 
sculptured grace and lordly site fit for its consecration, its 
crumbling fragments, bleached and pale gray in the sunshine, 
necked with dark lichens fed by the damp wind, and motley 
with soft, russet-brown stones furrowed by time or the ele- 
ments, and threatening every part, all are vanishing from 
the wide landscape over which they looked for centuries in 
benediction. 

Far on every side from the ruin spreads the view, unchanged 
alone upon the sea throughout the east, but showing modern 
England evident elsewhere. Southward over long swells of 
land are green pastures or yellow crops. Northward the bold 
Yorkshire coast meets the distant horizon of the ocean, while 
inland extends more of the farming country. Closely below 
the broad crest of the grassy ridge nestles the quaint old town 
crowded deep in the valley where the Eske winds into the har- 
bor, a pool like a dock, amid small plain buildings dingy with 
red bricks and smoke. From this thrifty little hive of com- 
merce the Middle Ages have not passed farther and more cer- 
tainly away than they have passed — even if they seem to 
linger as they go — from this mount of vision consecrated to 
the memory of the Christian lady who was as a light in dark- 
ness, if no longer here is owned her sainted name of Hilda. 

Selby shows how wisdom and real piety can preserve a grand 
monastic church for the delight and use of many generations 
after the Dissolution. The town, about a half hour's ride by 
rail from York, stands in a flat agricultural country that, with 
manufactures, fairs, and a weekly market, makes it a centre of 



266 THE MONASTERIES. 

some trade, and gives it a considerable population needing no 
small provision for religious services. At the east end, near 
the railway, stood the Abbey ; and although only fragments of 
the monastic buildings remain, the church is entire, and supplies 
a magnificent as well as useful spiritual home for the people, as 
it has done for centuries, and with pious care, like that now 
shown, will do through a long future. 

Selby is supposed to have been the ancient Salebeia and the 
site of a Roman station ; but it became well-known only in 1069, 
when William I. established the important Benedictine Abbey, 
for five centuries its chief glory, and said to have ranked in 
wealth and privileges with St. Peter's church, at York, while 
with St. Mary's at York it had " the only mitred abbots north 
of the Trent." At the Dissolution (1539) the revenue was 
estimated to have been from .£729 to £819. 

The church presents a remarkably long body, measuring 267 
feet by 50 feet, chiefly in later Pointed style, covered by a dark 
leaden roof and surrounded by a green burial ground. A nave 
and choir of equal length are separated by a transept, of which 
only the very short north end remains, the southern having 
been destroyed in March, 1690, by the fall of the upper forty- 
two feet of a central tower which was soon afterwards rebuilt 
in the bad taste of the time, and continues to be an evidence 
of it, as well as the only large blemish on the edifice. On the 
outside the walls are built of light-gray stone spotted with 
dingy buff, blackened towards the ground, and to some extent 
at the eastern end combed by the weather. Norman work is 
shown in a fine door, covered by a good north porch, and in 
the single portal at the west front, which, although worn and 
blackened, still proves the richness of its original design. 
Early English and Perpendicular appear in simple forms 
along the sides of the nave, and much more ornamented, 
but rather heavy, on the choir. They are also used in the 
upper part of the west front, the whole of which forms a 
square mass, battlemented, accented by four buttresses and 
pinnacles and a renewed central gable. 

The interior has the effect as well as the reality of great 
length, and shows a variety of styles and work executed in 



NORTHUMBERLAND. 267 

stone of a light earthy brown color. About 1871 the nave, 
with eight bays in Norman and Transition, was restored, at 
a cost of <£ 7,000, obtained, the writer was told, with some 
labor in a community of no great wealth, except some aid 
received from London, Leeds, and other places. Among the 
features of the nave, it will be seen that the triforium has 
very large low arches, each of which covers a pair of smaller 
arches, and that the west piers of the central tower have settled 
and pressed the adjoining bays curiously out of line and bent 
their arches, proving, although in an undesirable way, that 
the masonry must have been very good to endure the strain. 
Colored glasses not abundant, but it fills a large pointed win- 
dow at the west end. All of the ceiling is of wood, except 
over the aisles, where there are low pointed vaults. Over the 
nave the roof has a low double pitch, and shows oblong panels 
bearing figures on blue grounds and ornamented beams. The 
choir, of seven bays, is in Decorated style, and has no triforium, 
but a tall clerestory having windows filled with tinted glass. 
In the aisles the arches of the windows are remarkably sharp. 
At the east end the usual large window is very large, and has 
a rich heading glazed with colored glass. In 1618 the church 
was made parochial, — a dedication still continued, for which it 
is well provided with oak pews and plain stalls in the choir, 
furnishing a good number of sittings, more prominent than 
ancient objects. Across the end of the choir, however, and 
along a bay on each side, is a notable old traceried stone 
screen, and throughout the aisles is a curious pavement 
composed chiefly of large tombstones. 

Still by far the noblest object in the town, the Abbey church 
seems to be able to prolong indefinitely its seven centuries of 
history and usefulness, and remain a blessing and an honor to 
the people of Selby. 

The Abbeys op Northumberland include three of partic- 
ular interest for their history, of which two are also remark- 
able for the nature and position of their ruins on the sea- 
shore, and one, in a town, for the gratifying preservation of 
its church. 



268 THE MONASTERIES. 

Lindisparne, the Holy Island, about 637 became the seat of 
Scottish monks who had been introduced as missionaries into 
Northumbria. Their superior, " a prudent as well as a pious 
man," says Grose, was Aidane, the first bishop of a See estab- 
lished there in the scene of his labors, continued for four- 
teen years until his death. According to Wiltsh (i. 362), he 
founded " a seminary for all England." His sixth successor, 
Cuthbert, who became the most distinguished saint of this part 
of the country, was for a dozen years the bishop or prior, and 
was famous for his virtues and devotion, as well as for some 
legendary associations ; but his name and memory are chiefly 
known in their connection with the heights of Durham (p. 220), 
to which his body was carried to rest for many centuries. Of 
the seventeen or eighteen bishops said to have ministered upon 
the Holy Island, nine successors, between 882 and 995, made 
their seat Chester-le-Street, in the north part of the county pala- 
tine, whence it was removed to the cathedral city, where it has 
remained. The early church of Lindisfarne was destroyed in 
June, 793, by pagan invaders ; and although with the monastery 
it was restored, it was abandoned by the monks, and was again 
destroyed a century later by another party of marauders. In 
1069 the relics of St. Cuthbert were brought back to Lindis- 
farne while William I. was ravaging the mainland ; but after 
three months were replaced in Durham, and a cell, or colony, 
of the great monastery at the latter was established on the 
Holy Island. Its church, as the style shows, was erected 
chiefly in the Norman period ; but there were later additions. 
Through its long life the community seems to have been more 
celebrated than rich, for at the Dissolution the income is said 
to have been only from X48 to .£60. 

An excursion to this old historic spot 1 can be agreeably 
made from Belford by a road, in some places shaded, and in 
others open, leading to the broad sands along the shore. At 
low tide they can be crossed in a carriage ; at high tide a boat 
must be taken : for Lindisfarne is by turns mainland or a long, 

1 The writer has given an account of the island and described its associations 
with " Marmion " in his " Lands of Scott," ch. vi. pp. 41-48. See also Scott's 
"Border Antiquities," 4° (1814), ii. 136. 



NORTHUMBERLAND. — HOLY ISLAND. 269 

narrow island, the northern part of which is rather low, and 
the southern end a peak crowned by a small but picturesque 
castle built in the reign of Elizabeth. On reaching the shore, 
travellers must pick their way over stones and seaweed and 
up steep rocky banks, and thence go to a straggling village oc- 
cupied by fishermen. Near this stands the Abbey, surrounded 
by low walls, and presenting few remains except those of the 
church, although the buildings once covered nearly four acres. 
Of the church, about 138 feet long, with a nave 18 feet, and 
aisles 9 feet in width, built of red sandstone in Norman style, 
and much decorated, there remain the choir, a portion of the 
transept, part of the west end, and one aisle of the nave, all 
still in tolerable preservation. One massive, richly ornamented 
rib diagonally spans, or spanned, the intersection of the arms, 
and shows to some extent the style of the vaulting that has dis- 
appeared. Solidity was everywhere a characteristic, — as, for 
instance, the pillars in the nave, that, while richly ornamented, 
and only about 12 feet high, are 5 feet in diameter. Both 
the early history of the church, indeed, and its exposure to 
the storms of land and sea, have proved the value of the 
ponderous constructions well understood by the Normans. As 
Scott wrote, — 

" Needful was such strength to these, 

Exposed to the tempestuous seas, 

Scourged by the winds' eternal sway, 

Open to rovers fierce as they." 

A ridge between the Abbey and the shore of the island 
towards the mainland commands a wide view in every direc- 
tion. Northward are seen high coasts stretching far away, 
and beyond them the broad masses of the Kyloe Hills. South- 
westerly, above a waste of sands, rises the towering form of 
Bamborough Castle ; and seaward from it are the low rocky 
Fearn Isles, where many fearful shipwrecks have occurred, and 
where Grace Darling earned deserved fame. More to the south 
is a long reach of the low green island that extends to the 
castellated peak, quite worthy to be called St. Michael's, far 
around which, towards the east, rolls the wild, storied German 
Ocean. Seamanship, from the exploits of the Norse rovers to 



270 THE MONASTEEIES. 

the voyage of the steamship, sometimes quite as perilous, is 
everywhere suggested by the scene and its associations. Yet 
while life on these waters — always exciting or important since 
the story of man began there — is as active as ever, the old 
monastic life, once so pre-eminent upon the Holy Island, has 
not only ceased, but even man's recollection of it is fading, 
and the firm stones that formed its home are crumbling, and 
are hurried by the tempests, grain by grain, to mingle with 
the sands along the shore, and in their shapeless wastes to 
be rolled by the sea into oblivion. 

Tynemouth Priory stood on a rocky and commanding head- 
land that projects into the sea by the north side of the river 
Tyne. Long reaches of the coast extend in sight both north 
and south. Uneven heights rise inland, and seaward many a 
mile of the German Ocean can be seen. The site is indeed 
the most prominent for a great distance along the coast. Upon 
it the benighted Middle Ages built a monastery, with a church 
where monks said daily prayers beneath a cross that rose as a 
hope and a guide above the stormy sea, far over which the 
music of bells in gloom or sunshine told the sacred hours. 
Our nineteenth century maintains a fort, with guns and piles 
of balls, around the ruins of the ancient shrine. But good care 
is kept, it should be said, of the worn fragments of the church ; 
its walls are freshly " pointed," and a large, very useful, if less 
picturesque lighthouse stands near the site of the altar of the 
Holy Virgin. 

Early in the seventh century, according to report, the king 
of Northumberland built a small wooden chapel here, and 
not long afterwards a monastic institution was established. 
Through the next few centuries the usual history of the 
abbeys on the eastern coast was here repeated. The ma- 
rauding Danes, with fire and sword, came more than once, and 
the ruin that they caused was painfully repaired. At length 
the Norman rule enforced some quiet, and the priory became a 
cell of Durham. In 1090 the Black Benedictine Canons were 
installed. Twenty years later the buildings were however 
again destroyed ; but they arose once more, and in much greater 
beauty, and in time the wealth of the community increased 




TYNEMGU'TH, THE CHOIR. 



NOKTHUMBERLAND. — HEXHAM. 271 

until, among other property, it held twenty-seven villas in 
Northumberland ; and although the Scotch ravaged the place, 
the revenue of the priory at the Dissolution was estimated at 
from £397 to £511. 

Tynemouth is a neat, rather large, and modern-looking town, 
with bathing places and a very handsome new aquarium. At its 
farthest seaward end is the bold rocky point, girt with defensive 
works of various ages. Near the centre of the area they en- 
close stand the ruins of the priory, built of squared blocks of a 
veined yellowish sandstone, now grown yellowish-brown, dark- 
gray, or black. Only the lower parts of the west front and end 
remain, but they are badly worn, and all of the nave is gone. A 
peculiar wall that closed it from the transept is still standing, 
pierced by two small round-arched doors, between which, on 
the eastern side, is the wreck of an arcade with dog-toothed 
ornaments around the arches. The chief part of the church 
existing, and by far the largest fragment of the priory, is com- 
posed of the east end and three south bays of the choir, all 
nearly entire, but worn by the weather ; indeed, on the south- 
eastern outside corner the stones are so worn that they suggest 
a deep, irregular rustication. While the style is transitional, 
the chief features are Early English, showing a design that 
once was rich and elegant. Among the incongruities that now 
surround the ruins, there is, towards the south and east, the 
fit and seemingly inseparable English burial-ground, with many 
tombstones, some of which are recent, proving that the ground 
has not lost its ancient consecration. In the church several 
distinguished personages were buried, among them King Mal- 
colm and Prince Edward of Scotland (both 1094), and the 
biographer, John de Tynemouth, who lived in the fourteenth 
century. 

Hexham, a quaint market town of Roman, or more prob- 
ably of Saxon origin, contained a monastery founded about 
673. In 678 it became the seat of a bishopric that was con- 
tinued more than a hundred years, and finally was joined to 
the See of Durham. In the ninth century the Danes, accord- 
ing to their practice, ruined the monastery ; but in 1112 it was 
restored, under the Augustine rule. In 1138 and 1296 the 



272 THE MONASTERIES. 

Scots robbed or destroyed it, and the nave, burned in the latter 
year, was never rebuilt ; but the remainder of the church has 
become parochial. It is an edifice standing on a little hill 
around which the irregular old town is built. There are no 
great remains of the monastic buildings, but more than in 
some other abbeys. At the northwest are two large round 
arches of a minor gateway, and eastward, across the market- 
place, is the tall, plain, castle-like main gateway with a low 
arch through it. Little of its ancient aspect now remains, 
for the exterior is blackened and the interior has been altered 
to make two dwelling-houses. Of other of the lesser parts of 
the Abbey there are fragments of the chapter-house, the walls 
of the cloister area, with some blackened and mouldering but 
once rich tracery on the western side, and the walls of the 
refectory ; but its interior is modern, and arranged for the uses 
of a court. 

The church, in Early English, is another good example of 
the usefulness and value of wise preservation. Its exterior, 
extremely worn, and grown a yellowish-gray or black, shows a 
choir of six bays, and each end of a transept with four bays. 
At the intersection of the two parts is a low, heavy tower, 
covered by a depressed, dark, pyramidal roof. Of late the 
east end and east bay of the choir have been rebuilt in smooth 
gray-buff stone, with which some of the windows also have 
been mended. Only one bay of the nave remains, closed by a 
blank wall that forms the west end, the chief feature of which 
is a very large patch of new light-bumsh stone. The interior, 
far nobler than the exterior suggests, is cleaned to the surface 
of the dark brown-buff stone of which all of it is built, and 
has an effect of loftiness, solemnity, and quaint stateliness that 
is impressive, and is all the greater since it may be unexpected. 
Six lancets in the north end of the transept, and some smaller 
windows in the aisle of the choir, have new colored glass that 
makes the interior rich by offsetting the sombre hue of the 1 
stone-work. One of the most curious features of the church 
is a very unusual monastic stair of stone, built at the south 
end of the transept and leading in a straight line to a broad 
gallery, also of stone, that reaches across the end. A door 



NORTHWESTERN COUNTIES. — FURNESS ABBEY. 273 

from the latter opened to the dormitories, and by this way the 
monks came nightly in procession to the church. Beneath the 
gallery is a corridor that forms the present entrance, and in it 
are several well-preserved tombstones of the monks, among 
which is a more aged antique, a tall stone with a bas-relief of 
a Roman soldier riding over a Pict. It was found on the spot, 
protected by a coating of cement, and is in far better condition 
than are the smutty objects at Newcastle. At the east end of 
the choir, beside the altar, is an even more curious carved 
sanctuary seat of stone, low and extremely old, and said to 
be one of the only two now left in England. 

In Northwestern England monastic institutions, although 
hardly as numerous and important as in other parts of the 
country, were represented by several of interest, and by one 
especially celebrated, even by its slowly falling ruins. Lanner- 
cost Priory has been already described by the writer. 1 Cartmel 
Priory is shown by its large cross-shaped church, judiciously 
and piously bought by the parish, at a later date repaired, and 
for a long time used, a treatment of which Hold Cultram and 
St. Bees are minor examples. Ulverstone Priory has perished, 
and Calder is a ruin. One great Abbey, however, in the fasci- 
nating picturesqueness that the kind touch of Nature has im- 
parted to the wreck caused by the elements and the ruthless 
hands of man, stands in the charming vale of Furness, and 
may be properly considered the representative of the north- 
western monasteries. 

Furness Abbey, 2 dedicated to St. Mary, was founded in July, 
1127, for the Benedictine Order, but soon afterwards submitted 
to the Cistercian rule. The site of the Abbey, originally wild 
and solitary, called the vale of the Deadly Nightshade, from a 
plant that grew there in abundance, was such a spot as the Cis- 
tercians generally chose, but that eventually, under their in- 
•dustry and skill, became a garden. Happily the community 
established there was far less troubled by the Scots and other 
enemies than was usual in the north and east of England ; 

1 In " The Lands of Scott," chapter xxi., " Rob Roy," pp. 170-171. 

2 See West, T., The Antiquities of Furness, etc., 4°, London, 1774. 

18 



274 THE MONASTEEIES. 

consequently the improvements that they made were greater, 
and their history was more peaceful. Their possessions, always 
considerable, were increased, until at one time, in the four- 
teenth century, their rents are said to have been about X 1,600, 
— indeed the Abbey had such resources that it became the 
mother monastery of nine other houses, and at the Dissolution 
its revenue was estimated to have been from £805 to £966. 

A good view of the region chosen by the monks can be 
gained from the Beacon Hill, about half a mile southward. 
Amid a wide prospect from it over Morecambe Bay and Bar- 
row, and an undulating, hilly, agricultural country, open and 
now thoroughly cultivated, curves a deep narrow valley, in 
which is nestled the Abbey, almost unseen, close beside a little 
stream. On entering this secluded retreat it is found to be 
green and charming from the care of ages, begun by the monks 
who, while concentrating their skilled labor here, spread it also 
far over the surrounding lands seen from the hill. Besides the 
gray and still extensive relics of their old home, made a ruin 
by more recent generations, there is scarcely more than one 
prominent evidence of our time. Where the walls of the mon- 
astery once stood, the railway trains rush shrieking near the 
church where grand old Latin hymns were chanted. But the 
inevitable modern convenience is well managed. Travellers 
are left beside the abbot's house, now converted into a neat 
small hotel, and then the train dives considerately into a hill 
and disappears in a tunnel. Turning to the ruin, we find that 
between the wooded heights upon each side there is a narrow 
tract of turf once covered by the Abbey, over which its ruins 
are now scattered. Well might the historian of Furncss write 
beneath the view he gives, " Heu Lapidum Veneranda Strues ! " 
while he gazed upon the extensive group of venerable buildings, 1 
once entire in grandeur and in beauty, fitting their great pur- 

1 The dimensions of the various parts (as given by West) show the great size 
and importance of the Abbey. The church was 318J feet long externally, and 
287£ feet internally ; the transept was 130 feet long and 27J feet wide. The 
choir (that had no aisles) was 38 feet wide ; the nave was 70 feet wide inside, 
and 78 feet outside. The chapter-house was 60 by 45^ feet; the cloisters, 31.6 
feet wide, enclosed a court 334i by 102£ feet. The refectory and locutorium 
together were 225 feet long and 34 feet wide. 



NORTHWESTERN COUNTIES. — FURNESS ABBEY. 275 

poses and long history, but, after the suppression, left a prey 
to the wild elements or even more remorseless greed of men, 
until they now stand in pathetic fragments. Storms that beat 
upon the unprotected fabrics were outrivallcd by devastating 
hands that made them a quarry. Only three centuries and 
a half ago the seat of one of the largest, oldest, and most 
powerful religious institutions in the country stood here as it 
was shaped by royal, noble, and pious men of many generations ; 
yet after the lapse of this comparatively brief time, in more 
utter dissolution than was decreed by Henry VIII., it is fast 
crumbling into final decay, and so hopelessly dissolving that no 
long while hence it will leave scarce " a wrack behind." 

The styles of the buildings — late Norman, Early English, 
Decorated, and Perpendicular — show the great difference in 
their age. A soft red sandstone, quarried in the neighbor- 
hood, used in the construction, was well laid in small blocks, 
placed judiciously as in their native strata, and bound by good 
cement ; but its color has been much changed on many parts, 
particularly those with an exposure easterly or northerly, where 
the surface has grown grayish, or is covered with a whitish 
mildew. Years ago the church was nearly in the fragments 
found at present. A western tower, still fifty feet in height, 
stands open by a tall arch to the nave, which is represented 
only by foundations, and the south wall, twenty feet high, it 
may be. Of the transept, the north end is badly broken, and 
its west wall, out of plumb, has been held up by iron rods ; 
the south end is in much better preservation, as also is a long, 
narrow, curious vestry opening from it. By far the most entire 
part is the choir, the walls of which are of nearly their original 
height, fifty feet, and retain some interesting stone sedilia. 
At the south of the church, adjoining the site of the cloisters 
which have disappeared, and the end of the transept, are frag- 
ments of the chapter-house, originally covered by a vaulting 
supported by two rows of pillars ; but nearly all of it about a 
century ago was " suffered (proh dolor !) to fall in," says West. 
It was an apartment of great size, with traceried walls, said 
to have been the most elegant in the Abbey, and was entered 
through one of three deep, round-arched recesses opening from 



276 THE MONASTERIES. 

the cloister, and still showing very picturesque Norman work, 
with richly moulded stones of dark red color, draped by vivid 
green. South of the chapter-house extend the remains of the 
refectory and locutorium, which had two aisles ; but little 
more than their mere outline now exists, as also is the case 
with the dormitory in a second story above them, reached by 
a large stone stair, part of which is standing in the corner 
of the transept. 

At the extreme end is the best- preserved portion of the 
Abbey, when the writer last saw it a fine group of buildings, 
although they are unroofed. One grand room here might cer- 
tainly have been kept for continual use, and some of the en- 
dowments stolen from the monks might have been, with great 
propriety and benefit, devoted to its maintenance ; for it is said 
to have been the school-house, — a good subject for true reforma- 
tion or conservatism. It was in condition to be repaired, and 
if in good order, there is some doubt whether a better school- 
house would then be found in many a mile of the north coun- 
try. West of this group, and joining it, are slight remains of 
what apparently was a large hall of great beauty. It is said 
that little of the ruin has fallen within the past century ; but at 
the writer's last visit, several parts seemed to be very insecure. 
The north end of the transept, the northeast angle of the 
chapter-house, and portions of the east side of the refectory 
were leaning in a manner that suggested speedy fall. 

A service, even of the most simple sort, is impressive in one 
of these " solemn temples," that for centuries resounded with 
the matins and the vespers sung in the old language of the 
Church, but that now only echo back the cawing of the passing 
rooks or twitter of the sparrows when the busy world does not 
intrude. While the writer, on a Sunday morning, sat alone 
beneath the shattered arches and read from his Latin Bible, or 
listened to the music of the birds, he felt his slight observance 
only like a preface to a silent sermon coming from the gray 
ancient stones, and telling that if human greed and passion 
help Time to make noble " things earthly disappear," benefi- 
cence, perpetual in its kindness, will gild the poor fragments 
with a blessed light ; and that if saddening ruin spreads around 



WESTERN COUNTIES. — TINTERN ABBEY. 277 

the spot that held the ancient altar, the bright sunshine of a 
glorious day shines on the bettered land. 

The Western Counties south of Lancashire, if they con- 
tained less numerous and splendid monastic institutions than 
there were in Yorkshire, were well furnished. In Cheshire, 
St. Werberga's church at Chester (p. 189) ; in Worcester, the 
great priory church (p. 179) ; in Gloucestershire, the Benedic- 
tine church at Gloucester (p. 171) ; in Somerset, the Augus- 
tinian church at Bristol (p. 130), and the Abbey church at 
Bath (p. 135), have happily been made cathedrals. In Shrop- 
shire, the nave of Shrewsbury Abbey church remains, and is 
in use, while Wenlock, Buildwas, Haghmon, and Hales-Owen 
show various amounts of picturesque ruins. In Worcestershire, 
the noble priory church at Great Malvern and part of that at 
Pershore are in due use, and Evesham shows some noble por- 
tions. In Gloucester shire, the great abbey church at Tewkes- 
bury, 1 and the lesser but picturesque one at Cirencester, are 
preserved, while Lanthony Priory shows scanty ruins. In 
Devon are remains of Tavistock Priory In Monmouthshire, 
Lantony shows mere fragments, and Tintern, one of the most 
charming relics of the monkish period in England, may well 
be ranked second after Glastonbury (p. 251) as a represen- 
tative monastic ruin in the western counties. 

Tintern Abbey, standing in a singularly picturesque part of 
the charming valley of the Wye, not far from Chepstow, is an 
extremely gray ruin, partly draped with incomparable ivy, 
placed on a grassy meadow, around which sweeps the river. 
Hills rise on nearly every side, and forest-like thickets cover 
those to the north and east. Down the stream, beside a curve, 
the banks are lofty and well wooded, and on those towards the 
east, gray cliffs tower high among the trees. The vale, indeed, 
for miles, is one of the most charming in the country, and one 
of those places that the monks knew so well how to choose 
and make a scene of exquisite beauty. From 1131, when they 
founded the Abbey here and dedicated it to St. Mary, the Cis- 
tercians held Tintern to the Dissolution, at which time its 
1 See Vetusta Monumenta, v., text, and plates 33-46. 



278 THE MONASTERIES. 

revenue, according to different estimates, was between £192 
and £256. 

The most important part of the buildings remaining is the 
cruciform and unusually well-preserved church 1 in Decorated 
style. Little except the roof and glazing has disappeared ; all 
the four great gables are entire, and in the west front a large 
and beautiful window of seven bays retains its mullions and a 
head of rich Geometrical tracery still unbroken, although worn. 
Except along the northern side of the nave, the walls are nearly 
entire, as well as is the tracery in the windows of the clere- 
story ; but that of the lower windows has been destroyed. Sev- 
eral of the monastic buildings are, or lately were, in tolerable 
preservation, and while smaller than corresponding parts at 
Glastonbury and Fountains, are of hardly inferior interest. 
Among them, beside a court, stood the hospitium for strangers 
and the monks' refectory, the latter having on its western side 
a recess for the usual pulpit, where a brother read from the 
Bible during meals. On the crest of the higher walls there is 
an uncommon and attractive walk, commanding an admirable 
view over the valley and the ruins and into the church. Ex- 
quisitely picturesque as are the remains of Tintern, there is a 
sadness about their condition, good as that is for a ruin, so 
changed is the Abbey from all for which the work of the 
builders had fitted it to last for centuries. It is a beautiful 
desolation, as Cunningham says, — 

" Where rev'rend shrines in Gothic grandeur stood, 
The nettle or the noxious night-shade spreads ; 
And ashlings, wafted from the neighb'ring wood, 
Through the worn turrets wave their trembling heads." 

The Southern Abbeys, — those in the counties south of the 
Thames, — are represented by several interesting churches in 
part or entirely preserved ; but some of the important abbeys 
are shown only by ruins. In Kent, at Canterbury, the chief 
ancient part of St. Augustine's once great monastery is its tall 
turreted gateway ; but much work has in late years been 

1 According to Grose (iii. 164) 225 feet long, 41 feet wide ; each aisle 18 feet ; 
transept 150 feet long; cloisters 111 by 99 feet; and chapter-house 54 by 27 feet. 



SOUTHERN ABBEYS. 279 

added. In Sussex, Battle, commemorating the victory of Wil- 
liam I. at Hastings (1066), shows only parts that have been 
changed. A portion of the church of Boxgrove Priory is used, 
while that of Bayham is a very broken ruin. In Hampshire, 
the large church of Rumsey Nunnery, in Norman and Early 
English, has been well kept ; a part of the small church of 
Beaulieu is used ; and Christ Church Priory is represented by 
its fine cruciform church, 302 feet long, in styles from Norman 
to Perpendicular. 

Netley Abbey, the best-known monastic relic in . Hamp- 
shire, was Cistercian, and founded about 1239. Far more im- 
posing than its revenue of £100 to ,£160, was its site, on rising 
ground above Southampton Water, where, in well-kept grounds, 
stand its very broken but picturesque ruins. All the pillars, 
the north end of the transept, and the east gable of the church 
have disappeared, leaving the south end of the transept almost 
entire. Over a few rooms in the minor buildings the stone 
vaults remain ; but the other parts are much broken, and the 
cloisters have disappeared. It is said that the peculiarly shat- 
tered appearance of the ruin was caused by the operations of 
a speculative carpenter in the last century who bought the 
materials, pulled down a portion of them, and was killed by 
the fall of the last lot with which he meddled. So it seems 
that retributive justice, as well as sermons, may be found in 
stones. 

In Wiltshire, Malmesbury Abbey J has been prominent since 
the beginning of the seventh century. It became Benedictine, 
and was well endowed and privileged, so that its income at the 
Dissolution was £303. Leland wrote that "the abbey-church 
is a right magnificent thing." Grose thought that it was " a 
most goodly structure, and equal if not superior to most of our 
cathedrals in England." A variety of styles showed through 
how long an early period its construction was continued, and 
a large tower at the centre and another at the west end were 
among its chief features. After the suppression, " one Stump, 
an exceeding rich clothier," made it a factory ; yet he is said to 
have been the chief agent in causing the church to be made 
1 See Vetusta Monumenta, vol. v., text, and plates 1-9. 



280 THE MONASTERIES. 

parochial, and thus in preserving the only part left, — about 
one third of the edifice. It stands in the town upon a hill, and 
consists of the nave, substantially repaired, and fragments of 
adjoining parts. At the west the style is Norman, well shown 
in an unusually rich doorway in the south porch; Transition 
appears in the arcade, and Decorated above it and in the win- 
dows. Remaining work, while showing the devotion, skill, and 
power of the builders, is one more proof of the barbarity of the 
iconoclasts and the wisdom of their successors. 

The Midland and Eastern Abbeys, if more widely separ- 
ated than those in Yorkshire, were by no means few, and seve- 
ral of them were important. Westminster, already described 
(p. 229), may alone represent those in London. In Essex, at 
Colchester, St. Botolph's Priory and the Abbey of St. John are 
ruins. Tiltey Abbey furnished a chapel, and Chiche an impos- 
ing front with a fine gateway. " The remains of Waltham 
Abbey Church," says Mr. Burdon, " belong to one of the most 
noble works of antiquity which the ravages of the modern 
Goths have left us." Founded by Earl Harold in the eleventh 
century, the Abbey became very extensive, and at the Dissolu- 
tion had an estimated income of £1,079 ; but of all its build- 
ings only the nave of the church is spared. This, externally 
altered, consists of seven bays with an arcade, a large triforium 
and a clerestory, in massive, enriched Norman style of uncer- 
tain date. Some good writers have thought that the work is 
earlier than the Conquest ; if it is, a wonderful example of 
the style is shown, introduced before the Normans brought it 
to the country. 

In Hertfordshire, St. Alban's glorious church has been pre- 
served, and is described (p. 145) among the cathedrals. In 
Bedfordshire, Dunstable Priory still presents its quaint irregu- 
lar west front, that with the nave still forms a church. In Bucks 
are the dilapidated relics of Burnham Abbey, founded in 1265 
" by Richard, king of the Romans." In Oxford, Christ Church 
is a cathedral (p. 170), as also in Northamptonshire is Peter- 
borough (p. 149), and in Cambridgeshire is Ely (p. 153). In the 
latter county the west front and nave of Thorny Abbey form a 



COUNTRY SEATS. 281 

church. In Suffolk are the quaint remains of Butley Priory and 
those of the once grand Abbey at Bury St. Edmund. The lat- 
ter was held by the Benedictines for 519 years, and its income 
finally was <£ 2,336. A bridge, parts of the walls, and the great 
Norman tower pierced by the entrance arch, are the chief relics. 
In Norfolk are the remains of the Priories of Binham, Wals- 
ingham, and Castle-Acre. The last shows a broken but still 
interesting western front with rich and elegant Norman work. 
The Abbeys of the White, Gray, Black, and Augustine Friars 
at King's Lynn, and of the Black Monks at Wymondham, are 
marked by fragments. In Leicestershire are ruins of the Priory 
of Ulverscroft and of the Abbey at Leicester. In Lincolnshire, 
small parts of Bourne Abbey and Sempringham Priory form 
parish churches, and Barling's and Thornham Abbeys are 
represented by fragments. The chief monastic relic in the 
county is that of the once magnificent Benedictine Abbey at 
Croyland, founded in 716, eight miles east of north from Peter- 
borough, on low ground that was originally a marsh. Of the 
buildings, which were burned at three different times, those 
dating from the end of the twelfth to the fifteenth century 
form the existing ruins. After the Dissolution they were aban- 
doned to decay, followed by dismemberment and ruin in the 
Civil War. A fragment of the church is used ; but nearly every 
part of the once immense monastery has been utterly destroyed, 
and scanty remains are found of its buildings, which were con- 
structed of fine Barneck stone in Norman and early or later 
Pointed. As a seat of education, Croyland was long renowned, 
and its library, burned in 1091, was justly famous. 

Country Seats called Abbeys, in considerable number, 
occupy the sites of monastic institutions, retaining their names 
or portions of their buildings, and representing them in a way 
quite different from the ruins, the churches in use, and relics 
such as those at Durham, Wells, and Westminster. Some of 
these residences are, or were, abbeys chiefly in name ; as, for 
instance, in Kent, Lee Priory, a house of the time of James I., 
remodelled in 1782 and later in the " Gothic " of James 
Wyatt, became the seat of Sir Egerton Brydges and his well- 



282 THE MONASTERIES. 

known press; in Wilts, Fonthill Abbey, the famous and im- 
mense residence of Mr. Beckford, was built between 1796 and 
1807, but was many years ago demolished ; in Staffordshire, 
Alton Abbey, or Towers, for four centuries the seat of the 
Talbots, Earls of Shrewsbury, is modern Gothic. 

Several distinguished mansions, on the other hand, as re- 
marked, are not only on the sites of monastic establishments, 
but some of them retain portions of the buildings. In Bed- 
fordshire is Wobum Abbey, a square modern edifice on a Cister- 
cian foundation, dating from 1145. In Dorsetshire is Milton 
Abbas, on an estate once pertaining to a Saxon abbey that was 
pulled down to give place to a large edifice in modern Gothic 
(1737, etc.). In Northamptonshire, Abington Abbey is a plain 
modern edifice. Belapre, in the style of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, is on the ground of a Cluniac nunnery ; and Milton Abbey, 
for many centuries the seat of the Fitzwilliams, is a long, pic- 
turesque structure, with several oriels built in the reign of 
Henry VIII. In Sussex, Battle Abbey, built in commemora- 
tion of the victory at Hastings, and situated about seven miles 
from that place, was Benedictine, and had thirty-one abbots. 
After the suppression, large parts of the buildings were de- 
stroyed ; but some fragments were joined to new structures, 
and upon three sides of a quadrangle a large residence was 
formed, for which a portion of the cloister walls, the hall or 
refectory, a crypt, and the great gateway of the Abbey were 
retained. In Warwickshire are Whitley, a seat built in the 
reign of Elizabeth, and Wroxall Abbey, that was a Benedictine 
nunnery, a quadrangle, built in the reign of Henry VIII., which 
became the seat of Sir Christopher Wren and his descendants. 
In Wiltshire, at Lacoch Abbey, a nunnery founded in 1233, it 
is said that the monastic buildings were preserved to an extent 
almost unrivalled in the domestic structures in the country. It 
was proved here that the ancient buildings could be made to 
serve well the requirements of social life, for little modern 
work was added, and the cloister and important portions were 
retained. 

In Nottinghamshire, Welbech Abbey, a seat of the Duke of 
Portland and one of a group of splendid mansions, represents 



COUNTRY SEATS. 283 

a Premonstratensian establishment, founded in 1153 and pos- 
sessing an income of <£298 at the Dissolution. Fragments of 
its buildings were preserved in connection with a large resi- 
dence, not remarkable for beauty, built in the seventeenth cen- 
tury. On it the late Duke spent enormous sums, making it of 
immense size and extraordinary character, and creating one 
of the marvels of the country, which as a successor showed 
a surprising contrast with a monastery. In this respect, 
although properly classed among modern residences, there is 
additional wonder in the unique tunnels and subterranean 
rooms with which it is provided. Among its apartments 
was a riding-school, in its time thought to be unrivalled, 
which has been converted into a picture-gallery, 182 feet 
long, and far surpassed by a new structure, said to be 379 
feet long, 106 feet wide, and 50 feet high, and to be lighted 
by eight thousand gas-jets. Yet size is only one expression 
of the great magnificence of this example of ducal grandeur. 

In Nottinghamshire is also Newstead Abbey, another resi- 
dence, remarkable in a different way, where large parts of a 
Priory of Black Canons, founded in 1170, are preserved. At 
the Dissolution the estate was granted to Sir John Byron, and 
until 1818 was held by his descendants, the last of whom, after 
making the Abbey one of the most widely known in England, 
sold it to Colonel Wildman. This gallant officer, a man of 
fortune and a school-friend and an admirer of the poet, found 
the house and grounds in very bad condition, caused by nearly 
half a century of occupation by the "wicked lord," the poet's 
father, and by a tenant, Lord Grey de Ruthen. Slight repairs 
had been made when the great Lord Byron succeeded, on com- 
ing of age ; but Colonel Wildman lavished taste and treasure 
in elaborate restoration, costing, it is said, more than eighty 
thousand pounds. The writer saw the place in his time, and 
can realize the affection that inspired the work and the just 
satisfaction that the recreator of the charms of Newstead could 
feel in his great success. If the park is not one of the most 
lordly, it has many pretty spots, although the " wicked lord " 
made it a dismal waste. Long ago, however, the trees had 
grown again, the lawns and shrubbery were fair, and among 



284 COLLEGIATE CHURCHES AND MINSTERS. 

the crowded ferns the rabbits in great numbers played. Abbots- 
ford is even less picturesque than the irregular house ; incorpo- 
rated with which, and forming a very striking feature, is the 
west front of the ancient church, dark varied gray or draped 
by luxuriant ivy, and retaining many details — although not 
the tracery, in a large central window — of its Early English 
and Decorated design. Parts of the interior show grandeur, 
snugness, or picturesqueness, and much elegance in finishing 
and furnishing. No portion is more interesting than the 
poet's bedroom, lighted by the upper windows in a tall oriel, 
the one nearest the church of three oriels on the main front. 
It is, or was, very quaint, and kept as he left it. Even 
quainter was the chamber used by Washington Irving, who, 
as is well known, described it, together with the house, a 
conception of the size of which he gave when telling us of 
the dimensions of the largest apartment, the drawing-room, 
70 feet long and 23 feet wide. With all the interest of 
Irving's account, its prose must yield in charm to the verses 
of the poet, who wrote of his own home, and who has made 
Newstead one of the most attractive shrines of genius in 
England. 



COLLEGIATE CHUECHES AND MINSTERS. 

These rank between Cathedrals and Parish churches. The 
former while not episcopal seats had colleges or chapters of 
canons and other officers, not less than three in number, sub- 
ject to a bishop, a form of services like a cathedral, and gen- 
erally, also, an endowment that supported an establishment of 
more importance than is maintained for parochial work. At 
Southwell, Nottinghamshire, is one of the most notable colle- 
giate churches, an admirable representative of its class, and 
now ranking with the Cathedrals, among which it has been 
described on page 168. At Bromyard in Herefordshire, 
Higham Ferrars and Irthlingborough in Northamptonshire, 
and Bosham in Sussex, are smaller and less important, but 
yet interesting examples. 



SHERBORNE MINSTER; WIMBORNE MINSTER. 285 

Minsters, large or notable churches, — hence as the cathe- 
drals at York and Canterbury are sometimes called, — now 
more commonly and specifically designate the churches of great 
monasteries ; as, for instance, the renowned example in Lon- 
don already described (pp. 229-244). Three others, long used 
by Parishes, are so prominent in beauty, size, and interest that 
they may well be regarded as the great representatives of the 
class in which they belong. 

Sherborne Minster, in Dorsetshire, is a venerable monument 
that marks one of the oldest sites associated with Christianity 
in England, on which a monastery was established as early as 
670. In 702 or 704 the seat of a bishopric that reached to 
Land's End was placed there, and remained until the eleventh 
century ; but the monastery survived until the Dissolution, 
when its revenue was .£682. Fragments of its minor edifices 
still exist. The church, that probably stands on the site of the 
cathedral, is cruciform, and shows work and styles from the 
Norman period to that of the Perpendicular. Of the former 
are parts of a central tower, 154 feet high, the south end of 
the transept, and a fine north porch. Of the latter are the 
traceries of most of the windows, while in the choir there is 
Early English. Few features, however, are as notable as the nu- 
merous and interesting monuments of various early dates to 
as great a variety of persons ; for among those buried at Sher- 
borne were two Saxon kings and many nobles and ecclesiastics. 

Wimborne Minster, also in Dorsetshire, is a simpler and 
smaller cruciform church. It stands in a long, irregularly 
built market-town, the quiet centre of a well-cultivated farming 
country, and traversed by a winding street bordered by red- 
brick houses, or others old and thatched. Through the Roman 
and Saxon periods the place was important. A nunnery 
founded in it about 700 was destroyed by the Danes two cen- 
turies later, and was succeeded by a monastery for secular can- 
ons, the church of which became collegiate. The Minster, its 
representative, is surrounded by green, open grounds, and is 
quaint, low, not very large, and built of squared stones of 
irregular sizes that are now of a checkered pale gray and dark- 
yellowish or reddish-brown color. At the west end there is a 



286 COLLEGIATE CHURCHES AND MINSTERS. 

low square tower with pinnacles, and another like it stands at 
the centre, and shows good ornamented Norman work. Upon 
the lower parts of the walls the work is Pointed. Steep roofs 
help to give more effect of bulk and height that without them 
would be needed for the edifice. Between 1855 and 1857 both 
the outside and the inside were restored, yet without serious 
effect to the ancient look of the church. The walls of the 
interior are light, and are relieved by some good colored glass 
and by the dark hue of the timber roofs. In the nave, the 
arcade has Pointed arches, with toothed ornament in Norman, 
— a style shown more decidedly in the central tower, which is 
open to its top. Beneath it is a very rich new pulpit in Gothic 
style, placed there in 1868, and also a brass lectern that dates 
from 1623. A resemblance that the building has, in some 
ways, to a Parish church, appears much less in the eastern 
parts, where the floor is raised to cover a small crypt. On 
each side of the choir is a large chapel, and at the south there 
is a vestry almost like a chapter-house, besides which the choir 
contains some unusually rich Early English work, the east 
window being particularly good, and several valuable monu- 
ments. The most interesting part, however, is the library, 
above the vestry, approached by a small turnpike stair of stone. 
It is a quaint room of moderate size, with small windows and a 
nearly flat roof, showing dark small beams. On all sides are 
the books, generally set in old monastic style, with their front 
edges outward, and many of them bound to the shelves by long 
iron chains. The sexton whom the writer found here was an 
admirable one for such a place. He was a little gray-haired 
man, half a century in office, who had found the books — left 
long ago to be a Parish library — dirty, dusty, torn, and in dis- 
order, and had mended them, arranged them in due order by 
a catalogue, and kept them clean. Peace be with the good 
sexton of Wimborne ! 

Beverley Minster, one of the most exquisite and noble churches 
in the country, and less known than it well deserves to be, is 
the imposing monument of a collegiate and monastic institution, 
with a rich endowment, dating from about the year 700. In 
the Saxon times the place where it stands received the name 



BEVEELEY MINSTER. 287 

of Beverlega, then Beverlac, from the beavers abounding there, 
and a town grew up around the ecclesiastical buildings, which 
experienced the usual vicissitudes of Danish ravages and of 
rebuilding, but, later, became a centre of prosperity. By far 
the greatest personage associated with the place in all the 
earlier ages was the fifth archbishop of York, a great bene- 
factor, who died in 721, and was canonized and known as St. 
John of Beverley. Early in the tenth century the church and 
town received the privilege of sanctuary from Athelstan, who 
founded a college possessing at the Dissolution a revenue of 
£597, a portion of which is retained. 

The minster was rebuilt in 1060 ; but much of the existing 
edifice dates from the reign of Henry III., and is in the Pointed 
style. It stands in open grounds that are surrounded by a wall, 
streets, and small yet neat houses, at the south end of a large, 
long, quiet town, with considerable quaintness but slight pic- 
turesqueness. There are few such pure and charming churches 
throughout England ; and in size and richness it is worthy to 
be ranked with the cathedrals, — indeed, it is a delight to those 
who know it, and a surprise to strangers. In plan it is a double 
cross, for it has an enriched and narrow east or second transept. 
On the outside, gray of a fine tone is the prevailing color, the 
west front having a deeper shading than the other parts, while 
portions of the choir are somewhat browned. There are two 
lofty, noble western towers, suggesting those at York, and a 
low central tower deformed with some pitiful late work, — the 
only blemish in a beautiful design. On the west front are four 
bold buttresses, extending to the pinnacles that crown the 
towers ; and these, the windows, and the walls are covered 
with elaborate Decorated and Perpendicular tracery. In keep- 
ing with this rich and stately front are the sides of the church ; 
both parts are worthy of each other. 

The interior is very light in color, the walls being a pale 
buff, and the ceiling almost white ; but there is much decora- 
tion and relief, notably on the vaults of the choir, where the 
ribs have deep red in the hollows and gilding on the bosses. 
Throughout the choir and transept, and in the first bay and the 
clerestory of the nave, the coloring is conspicuously varied by 



288 PARISH CHURCHES. 

a profusion of Purbeck shafts, re-polished about ten years ago, 
but already in some places discolored by whitish mould. A 
simple but handsome setting for the varied superstructure is 
supplied by pavements of black and white marble laid in large 
patterns, as at York. Happily the only loss — yet no slight 
one — suffered by the edifice has been the destruction of a 
large portion of the ancient colored glass, broken, they say, in 
the Civil War. One of the most noticeable original and pre- 
served features of the general design is the profuse use, both 
outside and inside, of very bold and graceful arcades. Through- 
out the interior at the base of the walls extends a border of 
them, with shafts of dark Purbeck, and in the triforium of the 
choir there are two with similar shafts, placed one before the 
other with a very rich and novel effect. Other useful as well 
as decorative objects found in this part of a fine church are 
prominent here. Placed at one side is the organ, in a case of 
dark wood, carved indeed in the exuberant impropriety of the 
last century, but subordinate to a fine lighter screen and elab- 
orate stalls of dark oak, which are exceptionally interesting. 
Although monuments are not numerous here, there is at least 
one that is remarkable, as is almost invariably the case in an 
English church ; it is the Percy shrine, which, if it has lost 
memorial work once under the exquisite stone canopy it retains, 
is still important. 

Beverley, indeed, we may feel, deserves congratulations on 
the beauty, stateliness, and admirable preservation of its min- 
ster, and travellers will be rewarded well if they will visit its 
delightful church of St. John the Evangelist. 



PAPJSH CHURCHES. 

In every part of England, humble, plain or ugly, beautiful 
or stately, stand some of the most expressive monuments, not 
merely of her arts and history, but of her most vital, although 
often quiet power. Through the past and present, wherever 
groups of people could be gathered in secluded rural nooks, in 
hamlets, towns, or crowded cities, there the Parish churches 



PARISH CHURCHES. 289 

provided ministrations that have shaped her life. These edi- 
fices have great interest from their many varying designs, from 
the ancient work that they retain, or, to a degree that does not 
exist in other countries, from their associations with men who 
have given glory to the country, and whose mortal remains lie 
peacefully beneath their tombs or pavements. Each succeeding 
generation has pursued its labors, passed its life, or quickened 
its faith amid ancestral memorials and the inspiration of the 
example of many an age, uniting it in a fellowship of associa- 
tions that have had constant and potent influence on the 
national character, and from which the future, that comes day 
by day, receives its guidance. 

Only a very large book, wholly devoted to the subject — one 
hardly yet written — could contain adequate and classified 
accounts of all these churches. About sixty may be men- 
tioned as examples of more prominent or interesting features, 
and several included in this number will be more fully de- 
scribed. Of the styles shown, Norman appears in parts of many 
churches, but of course it can be seen or studied to much more 
advantage in the cathedrals ; a far larger number date wholly 
from the periods of the middle or the later Pointed, while 
many were built when the classic or the Gothic revivals pre- 
vailed. Of the main features, a tall square single tower with a 
low roof and high pinnacles raised at the angles, sometimes 
central, but much oftener at the west end, — is very frequent in 
English designs. 

This square west single tower, with pinnacles, that dates 
from the period of the Perpendicular, or earlier, is shown 
prominently in the West of England. Notable examples are 
found in Cornwall, in St. Probus, at Probus ; in Somersetshire 
there are St. Cuthbert's, Wells, St. Mary Magdalene at Chew- 
ton Mendip and at Taunton, St. Mary's at North Petherton, 
and St. John's, Glastonbury ; in Gloucestershire is St. Stephen's 
at Bristol ; in the centre of the country are All Saints, Derby, 
and St. Mary's at St. Neots, Huntingdonshire ; and in the east, 
St. Botolph's at Boston, Lincolnshire. The central tower, of 
similar design, is shown well in St. George's at Doncaster, 
and St. Augustine's at Hedon, in Yorkshire. 

19 



290 PARISH CHURCHES. 

The west tower, of similar form, but crowned by a lofty 
spire, is more peculiarly used in the eastern or central portion 
of the country. Lincolnshire has many good examples ; as, for 
instance, St. Mary's, at Stamford (fine Early English), St. Wul- 
fran's, at Grantham, and St. James, at Louth (Decorated). In 
Nottinghamshire, is St. Mary Magdalene, at Newark. In War- 
wickshire, St. Michael's, at Coventry, has a remarkably tall, 
graceful spire, as also has St. Mary Redcliffe's, Bristol. 

Three fine Perpendicular churches may be mentioned, — 
Lavenham and Melford in Suffolk, and Cirencester in Glouces- 
tershire, the latter one of the most magnificent in England. 

The classic revival was shown chiefly in London ; and its 
earlier period might be named from its master-spirit, Wren, 
none of whose churches are without originality or excellence. 
St. Bride's, in Fleet Street, and St. Mary-le-Bow in Cheapside, 
with their noble spires and arched interiors, and St. Clement 
Danes, in the middle of the Strand, with its rich work and ele- 
gance, are memorials of his genius. Architects who followed 
him in time and style left also notable works. James Gibbs 
designed St. Martin' s-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, the deco- 
ration of which is profuse, especially in the interior. The latest 
and perhaps the most marked period of the classic revival 
extended into the present century, and has, happily, left few 
examples of its character, if we may judge this by the curious 
and expensive Greek composition of St. Pancras, one of its chief 
productions, which by its acknowledged failure helped to bring 
on the Gothic revival. Although the classic revival was preva- 
lent or active for more than a century and a half, — a period when 
some very ugly work was done and in too many places, — the 
national style was not displaced ; but, on the other hand, the 
foreign style made the excellence of the native evident, and 
the few noble churches in the former only added variety amid 
the great number in the latter. 

The Gothic revival, that in ecclesiastical art really began 
since 1820, has produced many good edifices in varieties of the 
styles dominant before the age of the Renaissance. It arose 
and grew, notwithstanding unfavorable influences which it 
had to oppose, until the change of taste in church-building 



PARISH CHUKCHES. 291 

within a hundred years is as marked, in its way, as any 
contrast between the England of to-day and of a century ago ; 
and indeed a resumption of the slave-trade would be little 
more imminent than general use of some of the Georgian 
fashions. 

Interesting and precious as is the art in many of these build- 
ings of different ages, it yields in attractiveness and impress- 
iveness to their associations with the faith and lives of more 
than a score of generations that make the old churches shrines 
of the best of England's history and spirit. While the morn- 
ing-stars of the great Reformation shone with living light the 
liturgy was chanted and the prayers were said in ancient seats 
of worship where the words with slight change now are heard. 
The social as well as spiritual history of all these centuries 
dwells also beneath their arches, and the chiselled stones bear 
records of the private names the neighborhood has known well, 
and often of those which the world has learned, and will not per- 
mit to be forgotten. In the chancel by the quiet Avon, Strat- 
ford cherishes the name and mortal remains of Shakespeare, and 
St. Michael's at St. Alban's keeps like guard of Bacon. Far 
away from both, at Hucknall, sleeps Lord Byron. In the 
charming Lake District, watched by huge Skiddaw, at Cros- 
thwaite, lies Southey, and near Rydal Mount is the grave of 
Wordsworth. If the sad " boy-poet " Chatterton does not lie, 
as he ought to, in exquisite St. Mary Redcliffe's, yet the north 
porch and his muniment-room are there. In the church of 
Great Hampden lies John Hampden. Few, indeed, are the 
older Parish churches in which some one of distinction does not 
lie, and fewer still are those without memorials of the worthies 
of their neighborhood. In London alone so numerous are 
objects of interest that they can be enumerated only on pages 
like those furnished by Murray and by Dickens. 

Of the churches that can be described here, half a dozen 
justly distinguished for size and design are first sketched, and 
then two others even more widely renowned. 

Amid the smoke of Bristol, pointing to its often clouded sky, 
is a tall, handsome spire that rises at the west end of a minia- 
ture cathedral, the church of St. Mary Redcliffe. It stands 



292 PARISH CHURCHES. — SAFPRON-WALDEN. 

upon rising ground surrounded by a large churchyard, and 
farther off by streets and common houses. On each side at 
the west end is a porch, the one towards the north of marvel- 
lous elaboration, and containing a quaint chamber in a second 
story, the old muniment-room associated with Thomas Chat- 
terton, whose short, sad, brilliant life was so suggestive. The 
edifice is cruciform, with two aisles throughout and a tower at 
the northwest corner, — both of the latter rare peculiarities in 
English Parish churches. On the site of an earlier edifice, the 
existing one was begun in 1292 by Simon de Burton ; and about 
three quarters of a century later William Canynge, mayor, 
completed the body, to which not a little was subsequently 
added. The style, consequently, is Decorated and Perpen- 
dicular, the tracery of the windows being chiefly of the latter. 
In 1842 the church was in a bad condition, and Mr. John 
Britton, distinguished for his works on English mediaeval art, 
was prominent in efforts to restore it, which were so successful 
that in 1860, as the writer saw, the whole exterior, with its 
beautiful pale-buff stonework, was fresh and renewed. Twenty 
years later he saw it already so dingy on the outside that ad- 
mirers might regret that so much elegance should be exposed 
in such a devastating climate. The interior is very beautiful. 
A remarkably airy, light, and open clerestory and a narrow 
transept with an effect of height unusual in an English church, 
a vaulting continuous throughout and enlaced with complicated 
ribs, abundant fine details, and numerous traceried windows, 
are combined in the magnificent design. To the effect of form 
is added that of color. An extremely pale tint that prevails 
upon the stone work is relieved by polychrome upon the ribs of 
the vaulting, and contrasted well with a large amount of bril- 
liant painted glass. Both the Lady Chapel, that was for a long 
time used as a schoolroom, and the interior of the great porch, 
are also very richly colored. None of the new fine objects that 
follow a great recent English restoration seem to be wanting, 
including an elegant reredos and appropriate furniture, all of 
which are worthy of this charming church. 

At Saffron-Walden, Essex, the church is not only in itself 
one of the most charming in any of the smaller towns of 



PARISH CHURCHES. — ST. BOTOLPH'S, BOSTON. 293 

England, but is also made more effective by its position on a 
hill at one side of a town that is of the good old English kind 
and is surrounded by a delightful country. Standing about a 
mile from Audley End (described on p. 372), and environed by 
the usual burial-ground, even more green, fresh, and peaceful 
than is common, the edifice dates from the reigns of Henry 
VI. and Henry VII., and consequently is throughout Perpen- 
dicular, of which style it is a very good example. It has ten 
bays, each of them nearly filled at the sides by large windows 
set between the buttresses, and at the west end a single tower 
crowned by a restored spire and belfry. Except on portions of 
the walls built of tiny rubble stones and grown mixed gray or 
dark brown, the exterior has a buff-gray or buff color. On the 
other hand, a great deal of the interior is almost white ; but 
relief and contrast are given by dark timber roofs, low and 
of double pitch, with which nearly every part is covered, and 
increased lightness is supplied by a good clerestory, one of 
the prominent features of the design. 

St. Botolph's, Boston, Lincolnshire, is rivalled in stateliness 
by very few other Parish churches in the kingdom ; indeed its 
tower is pre-eminent, and a work the peer of great Belgian 
structures, by which its design seems to have been suggested. 
While, like St. Mary's at Saffron-Walden, it stands in a town, 
its position and outlook are very dissimilar. For miles around, 
the country is extremely low and flat, and through this the 
river Witham slowly winds, flowing close to the west front of 
the church in passing through the town, which, after various 
changes, is now busy, large, and quaint. Although the Ro- 
mans are said to have built a fort near the sea at a short dis- 
tance from the place, its importance is much more recent, and 
dates from about 650, when Botolph, a Saxon subsequently 
canonized, made it the site of a monastery. From his name 
is derived that of the town, which during the Middle Ages 
became a seat of considerable commerce and prosperity. 
These afterwards declined when the navigation of the river 
was impeded, and when other ports grew more important in 
the last century ; yet Boston is still busy, interesting, and by 
no means decayed. 



294 PARISH CHURCHES. — ST. BOTOLPH'S, BOSTON. 

The existing church of St. Botolph 1 was founded, it is said, 
in 1309, or at the period when Boston was " the principal of 
the ten shipping ports of the kingdom," says Thompson 
(p. 161). A time of depression followed ; and a large portion 
of the body of the edifice seems to have been built as late as 
from 1327 to 1377, and the tower not to have been added until 
a century later. Although the construction was prolonged 
through more than two hundred years, some parts of the de- 
sign were even then incomplete. Some conception of the mag- 
nitude of the undertaking is conveyed by the statement of the 
dimensions, the whole length being 282 feet 6 inches, or 245 
feet on the inside ; the breadth is 98 feet ; the height of the 
vaulting in the nave is 61 feet, and in the tower 156 feet, the 
full height of the latter being 292 feet 9 inches. Extensive 
restorations in 1845 or 1846, and in 1851 and 1852 directed 
by Mr. G. G. Place, put the church in fine order, and it was 
re-opened May 12, 1853. Still later, a fine chapel was restored, 
as a memorial of the Rev. John Cotton, vicar from 1612 to 
1633, and afterwards the minister of the First Church, Boston, 
New England. 

The style of St. Botolph's, as indicated by the dates of the 
construction, is Pointed, showing various phases. On the dark 
gray exterior the design is better than on the interior, which 
presents a long, spacious nave, with an aisle on each side, and 
arcades of rather slender and widely-spaced pillars supporting 
a small clerestory, but no triforium. There is a very long 
chancel or choir, at the eastern end of which is a new and 
brilliant window, corresponding with one placed in the tower. 
All of the interior is vaulted ; but, except in the tower, the 
arches are flattened, and the design, not of the best, is hardly 
improved by a drab tint that is the general color. Stones 
stained by wear and time, or new encaustic tiles and marbles, 
form the pavement, on which a large number of pews are 
arranged. Decidedly the noblest and most interesting part is 
the tower, well worth examining throughout. An ascent is, or 
was, a bit of adventure, up a stone turnpike-stair, growing 

1 See Thompson, P., History and Antiquities of Boston, woodcuts, sm. folio, 
Boston (Eng.), 1856. Account of Ke-opening of the church, 8°, do., 1853. 



PARISH CHURCHES. — ST. GEORGE'S, DONCASTER. 295 

very small towards the top, where the writer found the steps 
so much worn that they were like a steep rugged inclined 
plane, up which one had to twist like a human corkscrew. 
When the battlements of the lantern are reached, a wide view 
is obtained that extends far over the grain or vegetable fields 
and the beautiful green pasture-lands of Lincolnshire, well 
stocked with large cattle. Hedgerows and lines of trees, not 
too precise or angular, and here and there canals, or ditches 
for drainage, divide the country. Church spires rise athwart 
the sky ; but there are no hills seen, except a long, low ridge 
towards the west. The view can be surpassed in Boston of 
the new world ; but larger and richer as is the city there, it 
has no church to outrival Lincolnshire's St. Botolph. 

St. George's, at Doncaster in Yorkshire, cruciform, and 
crowned by a noble central tower 172 feet high, is hardly sur- 
passed in size and elegance by any other Parish church in the 
country. It replaces an original structure of various and 
indeed uncertain dates that was almost destroyed by fire in 
February, 1853. Immediately afterwards £30,000 were ob- 
tained by subscription, and the church as it now appears was 
built under the direction of Mr. G. G-. Scott. Its length is 168 
feet, the breadth 65 feet, the height of the nave 75 feet, and 
the length of the transept 92 feet. Although the chief feat- 
ures of the old design were reproduced, incongruities in it 
were properly avoided. A light drab-brown stone was used, 
quite different from that in most of the cathedrals, several 
characteristics of which are shown, such as a lofty clerestory, 
rich Perpendicular tracery in the windows, and numerous pin- 
nacles. The general arrangement of the cathedrals is also imi- 
tated in the interior; but the dark oak-framed roof common in 
the English Parish church, here richly decorated, covers the 
various parts. Among the details are foliage and a great 
many carved animals, monsters, and angels, the last of which 
are beautiful, together with medallion heads of saints in the 
spandrels of the main arcade. In minor arcades there are pol- 
ished red and green marble shafts, and these, the tile pave- 
ments, and the ornamentation near the altar, are superb. Two 
parts of the church are uncommon, — a Baptistery of three 



296 PARISH CHURCHES. — COVENTRY ; WARWICK. 

bays, with a groined stone ceiling, at its southeastern corner, 
and a curious little library over a fine south porch. The 
town, it should be added, has the deserved reputation of being 
one of the prettiest in England. 

St. Michael's Church at Coventry in Warwickshire is a re- 
markable and grand edifice, in the later Pointed style, present- 
ing a nave with aisles and a great western tower and spire 803 
feet high, or equal to the length of the church. The tower was 
begun in 1373, and the spire was finished in 1395. A soft red 
sandstone, common in the western and central parts of England, 
is used, that, on the exterior, became seriously weatherworn, as 
it was when the writer first saw it. Between 1849 and 1851 
the interior was disrobed of whitewash and refitted, and a much 
more thorough restoration of all parts is now proposed. 

St. Mary's Church at Warwick, once collegiate, is large, 
and remarkable as an example of a Pointed church rebuilt 
early in the last century. A fire in 1704 that badly damaged 
the old structure is accordingly much to be regretted. One 
of the chief features of the exterior is a square pinnacled 
tower, 130 feet high ; but it is far less worthy of attention 
than the choir, which is of exceptional interest, and the Lady 
Chapel, " erected in pursuance of the will of Richard de Beau- 
champ, Earl of Warwick." The latter, one of the most not- 
able chapels in the country, was built between 1443 and 1463, 
and is an example of the richest and most graceful Pointed 
of its date. Placed near the centre of it is a monument to 
the founder, made of gray marble, in altar form, elaborately 
carved, and surmounted by a screen of gilded brass. There is 
also an imposing monument of the Earl of Leicester who was 
so famous in the reign of Queen Elizabeth ; and besides it there 
are other important memorials of members of the illustrious 
house of Warwick. 

Stoke Pogis has a slight display of architectural glories ; yet 
the world knows it, not by the numerous visits paid it, but 
because it stands in the churchyard of Gray's " Elegy." One of 
the earlier pilgrimages that the writer made to English shrines 
was to this quiet, charming place. It is about two miles and a 
half from Slough, a station near Windsor, whence the way is by 



STOKE POGIS; CHALFONT ST. GILES. 297 

a pleasant road that in some parts is lined with elms, and then 
by a pretty path across green meadows to Stoke Park. A monu- 
ment to Gray stands there in sight of places associated with 
his writings. It is a moderately ugly sarcophagus on a square 
base, and has four inscriptions on the sides, three of which 
are selections from his poem. At a short distance, across 
level grass-ground, is the little square churchyard, filled with 
the graves of people who have lived near by it, and bordered 
and shaded by trees. Close to one corner is the simple, pict- 
uresque church, composed of three or four small steep-roofed 
buildings set together, on one side of which is a low tower 
bearing. a whitish spire, and on the other a low rustic porch. 
The walls, pierced by square or pointed windows, are of bricks 
plastered ; but the tower is built of small flint-stones. All 
these parts are simple, yet picturesque, and a profusion of 
graceful ivy draping them seems wreathed with the associa- 
tions gathered there by the poet, and to make the plain 
building beautiful. 

The writer's pilgrimage to haunts of the poets led him to 
another church, at Chalfont St. Giles, an ancient, simple, plas- 
tered building, near a shrine of another sort that attracts one 
to its neighborhood. Some misdirection made his way there 
from Windsor very long and roundabout; but he was well 
repaid by finding not only how wild a country there could be 
no farther from London, but how pleasant it could be for a 
walk. A deal of turnpike and green lane are traversed, and 
then a path leads far across the fields into the churchyard. 
On the long street of the village, among its- variously pat- 
terned brick dwellings, was a small, old, English-looking house, 
with a timbered and plastered front surmounted by a little 
gable and ornamented with a pretty vine. The rooms were 
low and very plain, but neat, and in one of them, they tell us, 
John Milton wrote his " Paradise Regained." " This simple 
dwelling has been sacredly preserved," says William Howitt ; 
and honor to its owners and all England for the fact ! The 
blind old hero of " immortal verse " has glorified it, and the 
busy English-speaking world should not forget it, or that it 
can be reached by a good drive or walk from the station at 



298 PARISH CHURCHES. 

Slough. The writer may add that he found a shorter, and yet 
a long enough, way back by Eton to Windsor, where a dinner 
at the " White Hart " had a relish after a walk of four and 
twenty miles. 

Stratford-on-Avon guards a shaded churchyard placed be- 
tween its quaint old streets and houses and the little river and 
surrounding its gray Parish church, a shrine of so much of the 
spirit by which England has grown great that the venerable 
edifice is a charming representative of all its class and of the 
centuries of life by which it has been maintained. The church, 
standing on ground consecrated perhaps before the Conquest, 
is built chiefly in the Perpendicular and earlier Pointed styles, 
and is said to retain some remains of Norman work. In plan, 
design, and position it is above the common rank, and on these 
accounts important ; it is cruciform, with a tower and spire 
raised at the centre, a north porch, and a large chancel or 
Lady Chapel. For a long time it was endowed with a colle- 
giate establishment ; but that was suppressed by Henry VIII. 
In recent years, while extensive restorations have changed, 
and also improved, the interior, the outside still shows its old 
smoothed stones that have grown venerably gray by long expo- 
sure, not to dreary artificial smoke, but to the native weather. 
A pleasant avenue of lime-trees leads to the deep, richly 
moulded porch from which the nave is entered. There the 
evidence of age, the antique elegance, the work of modern 
wealth and study, constant piety, and careful regard for all 
that should be kept through the centuries, make the sacred 
place delightful and impressive, apart from the pre-eminent 
associations that have made this one of the most widely known 
of English churches. A look through the interior at its chief 
features as a church is thus quickened by desire to see some- 
thing there which attracts the world, and these features are 
soon viewed and described, — a nave with a lofty clerestory, 
a large western window filled with new colored glass, a fresh 
but dark, very low, double-pitched oaken roof, good simple pews, 
an organ that a while ago occupied the north end of the tran- 
sept, and, in the south end, a vestry. For a long while the 
chancel had a flat, plain ceiling, which has very properly of 



STRATFORD-ON-AVON. 299 

late been replaced by an appropriate roof. Along the sides 
and end, above a high base of plain wall, are lofty traceried 
windows, one of which, filling the east end, is particularly 
resplendent with new colored glass replacing a former com- 
mon glazing. But attention turns from everything else to the 
pavement, between an altar beneath this window and steps in 
front that are guarded by a fine brass railing. There lie two 
large, flat, dark stones, one of them, now slightly worn, bear- 
ing an inscription, copied on the spot by the writer in his 
Notebook, — 

Good p^e/vd for )es\s sak'z fo^b^akb j 

To JDiGC* THE VvST &NCLtfA5ED }£ ARE. 
IH_U £STE ^E WjYCAM "5 S"FAR E^ K^S STOTTB^ 
ANJJ OVR5T-^e- HE Y M OVE-S -3Y£Y &0 H &£. 

The whole world knows who sleeps there in the most peace- 
ful and sacred spot in his native town ; yet the other stone, as 
we are glad, tells more fully the personal story. Separated 
from the first by a rude, narrow stone is the second, a great 
slab, bearing upon its scaled, worn surface a small brass plate, 
inscribed, — 

HERE LYETH INTERRED THE BODY OF ANNE WIFE 

OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE WHO DEPTED THIS LIFE THE 

6th DAY OF AUGV 1623 BEING OF THE AGE OF 67 YEARES. 

Vbera, tu mater, tu hac, vitamq, dedifti 

Vae mihi : pro tanto munere saxa dabo 
Quam malletn amoueat lapidem bonus ang e/' ^ e 

Exeat chrifti corpus imago tua 
Sed nil vota valent venias cito Chrifte refurget 

Clavfa licet tumulo mater et aura petet. 

Beside this stone, and several feet above it, is a mural monu- 
ment erected not a great while after Shakespeare died, and 
bearing a bust of him that probably is a good portrait. The 
architectural part is of white marble, relieved by shafts and 
panels of black marble and by gilded bases, lines, and capi- 
tals. For a long time the bust wore a coat of whitewash given 
it by Malone in the Age of that neat and lovely article ; but it 
was removed about 1855, and probably the original coloring is 



300 TARISH CHURCHES. 

now shown. The flesh tints are a little ruddy on the hands, 
face, and high forehead ; the hair is black ; the cuffs and col- 
lar arc a dingy white ; the coat is dull red ; and the over- 
dress, or drapery, is black. On a black panel underneath 
the bust is an inscription that the writer also reproduces 
from his Notebook, — 

) vP I C-f O "TV Ul V/vO, GENIO 5oORATEM ARTE M/^Ro N £ /v» 
~~n r KR/\--rECnT / ?c7vi.Vi M/tfkET, Oi_Y/viPV,5 HABET, 

STAY P/>»S.y£MGE« W /+Y aOpSTTHov BY 5o FAiTJ 

RE-/AD IP "F+frV CA-N5T yvHo/v) E/v^iouS De^Ti WATH "PLA-ST 

AyiC/< /VAT"V*E 3?IJ)E \fr»o3E /VA/vE. X30~Fi Pec/<Y^<"V>BE 
^VVR MORE TI&H COST : SlJr* ALLv-3-ter HATH WRiTr, 

-Leaves <-'v/n<;aat, FWTPAG^To^E^yf: W'>rp(//rr, 

Z^jTATiS fj £31 C Zj AP 

In the great variety and number of English monumental 
structures it would be hard to find one more suggestive and 
expressive of the spirit that has given the country some of its 
chief strength and attractiveness, than this quiet chancel by 
the Avon. Beautiful, although invested with the simpler forms 
of mediaeval art ; surrounded by charms of nature such as Eng- 
land cherishes ; kept by the pious care of centuries, and ani- 
mated by their constant faith ; a shrine of these, and of a 
peerless genius in a native literature such as no country has 
surpassed, — we well may, if we select one building, look on 
this church at Stratford as the monument of England. 

While the numerous edifices raised by the Church not only 
reveal a great deal of the character and condition of mediaeval 
England, and also its connection with later times to the pres- 
ent, and while civil structures show other phases through the 
Norman period, there are yet many important works to be seen 
before a full comprehension is gained of the England of the 
Middle Ages and its existing monuments. 

Attention is accordingly turned to these, and reverts to the 
civil history of the country. 



CIVIL HISTORY, FROM THE NORMAN TO THE 
ELIZABETHAN PERIOD. 

THE period distinctly Norman gradually changed, while the 
native sons of foreigners and their successors were farther 
separated from the times and influences of the Conquest, and 
by degrees blended with the more ancient inhabitants. Mean- 
while the institutions of the country became less those imposed 
by invaders, and more those of a united people growing in 
strength and resources. Strong Norman castles changed from 
fastnesses of a victorious and oppressive foreign soldiery to be 
more like stations of a national police in military form, such 
as has always since been maintained in the country. As cir- 
cumstances directed, the older castles were kept, enlarged, or 
disused, until by the last half of the thirteenth century another 
class of military structures for different needs and purposes 
arose. Notwithstanding wars in France caused by royal claims 
to parts of that country, the strongholds along the sea became 
of less comparative importance. Degrees of domestic peace 
created opportunities and wishes for more commodious resi- 
dences of the rulers. At the time just mentioned, says Mr. 
Turner, the keeps had been abandoned for halls and chambers, 
and were " in a ruinous condition, and generally roofless," while 
" manor-houses appear to have increased in number." Former 
differing or conflicting elements of population were consoli- 
dated into a fresh, strong English nation, with new ambitions 
or necessities. It had less to fear from over-seas, but it had two 
frontiers on land towards neighbors who were never very quiet 
or friendly, and these must be guarded. Not only must it meet 
inroads on its own territory and repel them, but its superior 
strength, as well as a policy of stopping danger at the source, 
would impel it to military adventures beyond the borders. 



302 WALES, AND CASTLES ON ITS BORDER. 

Consequently the inevitable struggle between three nationalities 
confined within a territory no larger than that of Great Britain, 
lasted through centuries. It had probably been waged before 
the Romans invaded distant parts of the island, and more 
actively from time to time in the Saxon and Norman periods, 
and did not cease until unity — a manifest benefit and an 
equally inevitable necessity — was attained. 



CONQUEST OF WALES, AND CASTLES ON ITS 
BOEDER. 

Wales, notwithstanding hostilities with England were con- 
tinued through a long period, maintained a certain independ- 
ence, giving and receiving injuries, but unable to wage war in 
England far beyond the frontier. At length Edward I., in 
1276, determined to stop the conflicts by conquering the coun- 
try, and, as usual in such cases, a reason for the act was found. 
In 1237 Lewellyn, prince of Wales, who had domestic troubles, 
sought assistance from Henry III., and in return became his 
vassal. The son and successor of Lewellyn, of the same name, 
renewed this homage, but afterwards took part against the 
Crown during the Barons' War in England, and, with his asso- 
ciates, was defeated at Evesham in 1265. Prince Edward, who 
became king in 1270, after an absence in the Eighth Crusade, 
required the obedience of Lewellyn, and took such means to 
enforce it that in 1277 the Welsh, who had made a stand 
among the hills of Snowdon, in the northwest corner of the 
country, were surrounded by the royal forces and obliged to 
surrender. A rebellion not unnaturally followed, during which 
Lewellyn was killed in battle ; and David, who succeeded him, 
was made prisoner and hanged as a traitor. The conquest of 

1 See Grose, F., Antiquities of England and Wales, 8 vols, folio, London, 
1797 (and other editions). — King, E., Munimenta Antiqua, etc., 4 vols, folio, 
London, 1799-1805. — Turner, T. H., Some Account of Domestic Architecture, 
etc. (1066-1509), 4 vols. 8°, Oxford, 1851-1859. 

2 See, for views and some description, Woolnoth, W., The Ancient Castles 
of England and Wales, 2 vols, royal 8°, London, 1825. — Roscoe, Thos., Wan- 
derings, etc., in North and South Wales, 2 vols, imperial 8°, London, 1836. 



CONWAY CASTLE. 303 

Wales was effected, castles were built to maintain it, and two 
centuries of misrule and misery ensued before the principality 
shared in the modern order and prosperity of England. 

These castles, placed at strong points, surrounded the Welsh 
territory and were garrisoned to hold it. Several of them are 
on it, and in one sense should not be described among English 
castles ; but they are so intimately related to them, and were 
such remarkable English works in their time, that they should 
be at least briefly described along with those on English ground, 
with which they were links in a chain of extraordinary works 
of military architecture, stretched through regions often charm- 
ingly picturesque. 

Conway Castle, first on the line in northern Wales, midway 
along the coast of which it stands, was built by Edward I. in 
1283 and 1284, on a site, at the mouth of the river of the same 
name, so commanding that the Romans are said to have had a 
station (Conovium) near it. Such were its advantages that a 
monastery, founded in 1185, was moved from it to give place to 
the fortress, which, with the adjoining town, became an Eng- 
lish Carcassonne. While the works were almost of the same 
size as those in France, and form a stately example of a mediae- 
val stronghold, the defences were simpler and smaller, and are 
now in far inferior condition. The town was surrounded by a 
wall twelve feet in thickness, a mile and a quarter in circuit, 
pierced by six chief gates, and strengthened by twenty-four 
towers. At one side, on a rocky knoll close to the river, stands 
the castle, in shape a square, joined to a pentagon, each of 
which contains a court. Eight grand towers, all once furnished 
with watch-turrets, flank the outer walls, and these in some 
places are fifteen feet thick. An idea of the size of the castle 
is given by the dimensions of the great hall, now in ruins, an 
oblong apartment curiously bent, measuring 130 by 32 feet, 
with a roof 30 feet high, supported by nine stone arches. Gray- 
stone and some slate were used in the masonry, the excellence 
of which is proved not only by its endurance in all parts, but 
especially in one of the towers, where the base on one side was 
removed many years ago, and where the ponderous overhang- 
ing body still stands, little broken, although for a long time 



304 WALES, AND CASTLES ON ITS BORDER. 

subjected to the frequent jar of railway traffic close beneath it. 
A great deal of dignity and even elegance is shown in the gen- 
eral design, and the details, especially the traceried windows, 
give it an unusual architectural character and value. 

The history of the castle is less notable than its structure. 
Yet it was here that Richard II., in 1399, agreed "to sur- 
render his crown to the Duke of Lancaster, afterwards King 
Henry IV.," — an act that resulted in the devastating Wars of 
the Roses. Although the castle was held for Charles I., and 
was surrendered to the parliamentary forces in 1645, it was 
honorably preserved by them ; indeed " it was given up to 
Charles II. as the only perfect fortified place which had escaped 
their violence." He granted it to the Earl of Conway, by 
whom, in 1665, notwithstanding strong remonstrances, it was 
dismantled. 

Beaumaris Castle, finished by Edward T. in 1296, was of 
irregular shape, surrounded by a large fosse, and still shows 
interesting remains. For nearly a century and a half before 
the Civil War it had no garrison ; but, as was usual with castles 
at that time, it was held for the king and surrendered to the 
parliament. 

Carnarvon Castle, the grandest in Wales and one of the 
most remarkable in Great Britain, stands on a ledge of rock 
close to the harbor. Begun by Edward I. in 1283, and finished, 
according to report, in a single year, it remains not only a 
magnificent example of the military architecture of its date, 
but also the chief historical monument of northwestern Wales, 
and, indeed, of the English conquest and the cordial union 
that in time ensued. Here the king, it is said, used a bold 
expedient to confirm his victories. In the depth of winter he 
summoned his queen, Eleanor, to the castle, where, April 25, 
1284, their son was born, who soon afterwards was created 
Prince of Wales, and presented by the king to the Welsh 
chieftains with the words, " Eich Dyn," — " this is your man" 
says Lewis. His Majesty's policy was far more successful in 
the end than at first ; for in ten years after this proclamation 
the Welsh rebelled, surprised the castle, burned the town, and 
killed many English, and eight years later attempted another 



CARNAEVON CASTLE. 305 

siege. In the Civil War the castle was held for the king, 
taken by his opponents, recovered by the royalists, and finally 
surrendered to the parliament. After the war the property 
was for a long time held by various Welsh families, and sub- 
sequently by the Crown. 

Although the castle cannot be compared with Windsor, is 
less imposing than Warwick, and on a smaller scale than are 
the chateaux at Angiers, Nantes, and Loches in France, it has 
a dignity and interest of its own, and is a grand and not seri- 
ously injured work. If the defences were less calculated to 
withstand large armies with military machines, they were 
formidable before local enemies, against whom chiefly they 
were raised. The very massive outer walls, of great height 
and defended by nine towers, besides smaller turrets, are built 
of an earthy gray sandstone, tolerably strong, and laid in 
blocks of moderate size. They enclose an irregular oblong 
area fully seven hundred feet in length ; and although the mass 
they form is large, its surfaces and sky-lines are so varied that 
the effect is noble and picturesque. A massive archway cover- 
ing the main entrance opens to a spacious courtyard in the centre 
of the area, which is entirely surrounded by the lofty old works. 
These contained no very large apartments, but numerous small 
rooms, many of them being in the middle of the towers (nearly 
all of which were built on one plan) and surrounded by narrow 
galleries formed in the walls. Several turnpike stairs, still 
in unusually good preservation, together with these guarded 
rooms and other peculiar nooks and passages, form a labyrinth 
well worth exploring, not merely because it is so curious and 
romantic, but because it shows so well how a great medieval 
border fortress was arranged, and how its lords and men-at- 
arms both lived and labored. 

On the west and south coasts of Wales are the remains of 
several once famous castles. Harlech, about twenty-five miles 
south of Carnarvon, was built by Edward I. upon the ruins of a 
fortress said to have been founded in 530. The structure, a 
large quadrangle crowning a high rock, is an imposing ruin, 
from which there is a wide view of Cardigan Bay. Aberyst- 
with, now a ruin, was several times destroyed and rebuilt before 

20 



306 WALES, AND CASTLES ON ITS BORDER. 

1277, when Edward I. made it one of his strongholds. It was 
seized by the Welsh in 1404, and in 1408 was retaken by the 
English, who afterwards held it for the king until 1647, when 
it was captured by the parliamentary forces and dismantled. 
Two ancient Welsh castles stand next in geographical order. 
Cardigan, of which the remains are now small, was gained and 
strengthened by the English in 1240, and afterwards held by 
them. Some of the hardest fighting around it was, however, 
during the latter part of its existence as a fortress, at the time 
of the Civil War. Newport, long held by Welsh princes after 
the conquest, is a ruin. 

In the extreme southwestern part of Wales there is a group 
of imposing castles. Pembroke, which dates from slight works 
in the eleventh century, became important in the succeeding 
century, and was made a seat of viceregal jurisdiction that 
continued until suppressed by Henry VIII. During the Civil 
War the parliamentary forces held it from the beginning until 
1647, when it was gained for the king ; but it was soon taken 
by Cromwell and dismantled. The ruins, some of the largest 
and grandest in the country, bound two courts, and stand 
on a bold rock above the harbor, a branch of Milford Haven. 
Carew, a few miles east and on a similar site, is a lofty and 
imposing ruin, showing the stern towers of the earlier warlike 
ages and the large shafted windows of a later period of peace 
and stateliness. It dates from the reign of Henry I., and was 
held by the family of Carews for many generations. In the 
latter part of the fifteenth century, Sir Rhys ap Thomas, who 
obtained it, made it more splendid and the scene of prodigal 
hospitality. The Carews again held it, and the Civil War left 
it a wreck ; yet some of the apartments, that were of unusual 
size and magnificence, were half a century ago " in a great 
measure entire," says Mr. Roscoe. Manorbeer, south of Carew 
and on the sea-coast, dates probably from the Norman period, 
and was held by the De Barris until 1400, after which date it 
passed through various ownerships. The castle is so very 
large, and its ruins are so imposing, that they recall the words 
of Dr. Johnson, that " one of the castles in Wales would con- 
tain all he had seen in Scotland." Tenby, about five miles 



LLANSTEPHAN CASTLE; CARDIFF CASTLE. 307 

eastward and also on the sea-coast, is represented by scanty 
relics. Its date is anterior to the reign of Edward I., and its 
vicissitudes and overthrow were similar to those of its compan- 
ions. The last four castles mentioned, although not built like 
those in the North at the time of the conquest by Edward I., 
were earlier strongholds that formed links in the chain which 
'he drew close around the principality. 

Llanstephcm Castle, now a ruin, standing on a bold head- 
land beside the river Towy, near its mouth, is said to date from 
1138, and had its share of early trials, but less connection with 
the conquest than had some other places. Cardiff Castle has 
maintained an interest from a very early period to the present 
time. Already grown to importance when the Normans invaded 
and held the neighboring region, its fortunes in war and peace 
have given it a history too long to be told here. As a seat of 
the Marquis of Bute it has been restored, so that it now has a 
completeness, picturesqueness, and grandeur almost unique in 
Wales, and suggestive of the great French restorations of me- 
diaeval civil edifices. Both its position and effect are unusual, 
for it stands on flat ground between a street of the town and 
green open land, presenting towards the former its chief en- 
trance and front, — a long, large mass accented by towers and 
crested by bold peculiar battlements. The upper part of the 
extended curtain wall on this front is pierced by many large 
square ports, closed by red shutters hung from the upper edge 
on stout hinges in a manner not uncommon in France and 
shown in a few places on the Welsh border. At the west 
corner is a tall square tower, the highest story of which is 
carried on machicolations, and the roof doubled in a French 
manner, while another tower bears a dark ornamented spire. 
Difference in size, height, and design of still other towers gives 
additional variety to the sky-lines and general effect, increased, 
even, in some degree by curious figures of warriors placed along 
the battlements. Small roughish stones form a great deal of 
the material of the structure, but larger smoothed stones are 
used in some parts, giving them a gray color, with which olive 
and light yellow-brown tints are mingled. The interior of the 
castle has been refitted for modern social uses, and is at least 
of equal interest. 



308 WALES, AND CASTLES ON ITS BORDER. 

Caerphilly Castle, seven miles north of Cardiff, has a pe- 
culiar site, close to the bottom of a large basin or valley 
encompassed by high, broad rounded hills, of which some are 
forest clad and some covered by fields and marked by hedges. 
Adjoining it is a long straggling dismal village, with few good 
houses. The castle, now a ruin of immense extent, originated 
from a smaller one built probably since the year 1000, but is 
the result of work at many dates ; and although long held by 
powerful subjects, is more remarkable for its size than for its 
history. Built of flat, slaty-gray stones, it has a peculiarly 
shaggy look, increased by its lack of roofs and a cresting of 
turf or small shrubs along the shattered walls. Once extensive 
outworks have almost disappeared, and the main structure is 
so dilapidated that the style of portions of the defences is no 
longer evident. Still there are several courts, the chief of 
which, where the state apartments were, is 210 feet long and 
120 feet wide ; and connected with it is an extensive suite of 
rooms, partly preserved. As an example of defensive archi- 
tecture the castle is of less interest than Conway or Carnarvon, 
and it has less architectural character ; yet as an immense and 
wonderful relic of English mediaeval life, we can almost accept 
the statement of Grose, who calls it " probably the noblest 
ruin of ancient architecture now remaining in Great Britain, 
. . . exceeding the most noted castles of England in bigness, 
except that of Windsor." 

Along the southeastern frontier, on English ground, there 
are three castles, now in ruins, yet gems in the chain of Wales 
remarkable for their history, great size, and picturesqueness. 
All of them were important in their relation to the affairs of 
the principality and as strongholds in the Civil War, when all 
were besieged and dismantled. 

Chepstow Castle, 1 on the Wye, near where it flows into the 
Severn, has an unusual and commanding site, and to a visitor 

1 See Annals of Chepstow Castle, etc., by J. F. Marsh, edited by Sir John 
Maclean, 4°, Exeter, 1883. — Heath's Chepstow Castle, 8°, 1803. — See also 
Beattie, W., The Castles of England, etc., 2 vols, imperial 8°, n. d., for an 
account. 



CHEPSTOW CASTLE. 309 

is an uncommonly attractive ruin. It occupies the crest of a 
long, narrow ridge that rises from low ground to a consider- 
able height, presenting a sheer precipice directly on the river, 
and a low craggy slope inland along a little valley, or huge 
fosse, whichever one may call it. Close beyond it is the irregu- 
lar, long town, built on the slopes of a large swell of land, and 
within half a mile, in almost every direction, are heights far 
more elevated. The main entrance is at the lower end of the 
castle, beside a grassy area. Nearly all the masonry is found 
to be laid in mortar mingled with fine gravel, and to consist of 
small squared stones in the inside walls and towards the river, 
and of larger, square, cut blocks on the landward side, where 
greater strength was needed ; and for additional defensive pro- 
vision along the latter there are, near the top of the walls, large 
square openings similar to those in Cardiff Castle. For pur- 
poses more architectural, around the doors and windows and on 
buttresses and quoins still larger blocks of cut sandstone are 
used, showing red, olive-brown, or yellowish tints irregularly 
mixed. 

There are four courts, arranged in succession. The first of 
them, which is the largest, measures 180 by 60 feet. Here the 
ground is now grassy, and the walls, guarded by five towers, 
are, as in many other places, draped with luxuriant ivy. At 
one corner is the keep, a very high one, that, with an adjoining 
turret, contained fine rooms, in the upper of which are win- 
dows handsomely ornamented with roses carved in stone. On 
the battlements still stand half-length human figures cut in 
light-brown sandstone. Plastering, that formed the chief finish 
of the rooms, was laid directly on the walls. At two other 
corners of the court are the main entrance to the castle and 
the portal to the second court, and along the side towards the 
river are curious, broken, vaulted rooms. The second court is 
not unlike the first. Between it and the third is the loftiest 
part of the castle, separated from the wall that skirts the preci- 
pice along the river by a sloping walk upon the bare rock. In 
this highest part there were three stories, all now open from 
the turf that coats the ledge to the sky above them. A turn- 
pike stair of sandstone led to the Great Hall on the second 



310 CASTLES ON THE WELSH BORDER. 

floor, once a grand room spanned by large, well-moulded stone 
arches, and lighted by windows bordered by pillars with hand- 
somely carved capitals. In the face of the wall towards the 
town is some noticeable masonry, consisting of four courses of 
long, flat, light-red bricks forming a band that is Roman in 
style and appearance. There are also in the walls remains of 
work actually Norman, — some say Saxon. The fourth court 
is small, shaded by large trees, and now partly open to the 
cliff, whence there is a striking view down on the earthy-brown 
river and over curved hills closely beyond. A lofty tower still 
rises above an outer portal that, like the landward walls, is 
high and crested with shrubs and ivy. Nearly every portion 
of the castle is now roofless ; but the tops of a large part of 
the walls and towers are tolerably preserved, and can still be 
traversed. 

It would have been difficult to bring military engines to 
bear upon the castle when entire, nor could mining have been 
practised, and abundant guarded openings were provided, through 
which missiles could be thrown on sapping or storming parties ; 
but the surrounding higher ground would seem to afford advan- 
tageous positions for even the light early artillery. 

The castle, after long and important service as a great 
stronghold on the frontier, from the days when it was part of 
the Strigulia of the Romans, was besieged and taken by the 
parliamentary forces in 1645. The royalists afterwards sur- 
prised and held it, and its military history, of perhaps fourteen 
hundred years, was closed in 1648 by its surrender, after a long 
and close investment, to Colonel Ewer, of the parliamentary 
army. Cannon were then used with severe effect, from which 
the castle not only never recovered, but subsequently, by degrees, 
became even more ruinous. Yet in the last century several of 
the great apartments were sufficiently entire to be hired and 
used by a trader, under whose auspices sails were made in the 
kitchen and glass was blown in the hall. It was as late as 
1799 when the roof of the keep fell. Still the structure is in 
a better condition for judicious restoration than were Pierre- 
fonds and some other French chateaux, or than are most of the 
great English military ruins. 



RAGLAN CASTLE. 311 

Raglan Castle 1 justly has the reputation of being surpassed 
in interest and picturesqueness by no other structure of its 
class in England. From Chepstow there is a delightful way 
to it leading up the winding valley of the Wye, past Tintern 
Abbey (p. 277), and thence between sloping ridges not very 
high, but overgrown with shrubs and trees. Beyond these lies a 
narrower valley, where there are slight rapids in the little dark- 
brown river. Farther on, near Monmouth, the vale opens to a 
wide meadowy tract bounded by low broad hills and resembling 
a New England " intervale," where the road turns westward 
to Raglan, half a dozen miles distant. Near its little railway 
station there is scarcely a house, and even the ruin is not in 
sight; but beside a hedgerow by the road is placed a sign marked, 
" Footpath to Raglan Castle," and to a pleasant one it points. 
The path leads half a mile across an open undulating country, 
divided by hedges into large hay or grazing fields, in which oak- 
trees are scattered, until at length the castle is seen standing 
on a swell of land behind a screen of great old oaks. If it 
does not at first seem high, it really is. It covers a large area, 
surrounded by a great fosse, and presents an irregular form, 
varied by machicolated towers, some of them bare, and some 
crested by shrubs or veiled with ivy. Good-sized stones, 
smoothed, squared, and very hard, that have grown reddish 
or earthy-gray, face a large part of the walls; but in some 
places smaller or flat stones are used. As there is no quarry 
in the neighborhood, these materials must have been brought 
a long, and indeed unknown, distance. Of course the simple 
features of the mediaeval military style are prominent, for por- 
tions of the castle date from the reign of Henry V. (1413- 
1422) ; but there was also no little architectural state and 
beauty, chiefly in late Pointed, the so-called Tudor style, for 
other portions date from the reign of Henry VII. (1485-1509). 
Two towers that flank the main entrance, and another at a 
neighboring corner, still present their battlements, reared upon 
bold machicolations through which missiles could be thrown. 
There are two courts, now grass-grown, both of them large and 
irregular and surrounded by buildings that in many places are 
1 See Beattie and Roscoe (last note), and Heath's Raglan, 8°, 1823. 



312 CASTLES ON THE WELSH BORDER. 

of their original height. At the front, near the entrance, on 
the first and second stories are a few plain, vaulted, irregular 
rooms, now complete, showing what the minor rooms once were ; 
but all the others are roofless. The style of many of the win- 
dows, their tracery or shafting, and remains of chimney-pieces 
(some of them are nearly entire), show that the chief apart- 
ments were elegantly finished. Few of the other details have 
been spared, but there are indications that the plastering was 
laid directly on the walls. Two of the most important rooms, 
placed side by side between the courts, were the chapel and 
great hall, the latter 60 feet long and 27 feet wide. One of 
the most remarkable parts of the castle is, however, the vast 
hexagonal detached keep, or citadel, boldly placed before the 
front, that is turned inward so as to form a broad obtuse angle, 
towards which a corner of the tower points. A part of the 
moat, still filled with water, lies between the keep and the 
body of the castle, and between them is one of the most pic- 
turesque views in any ruined English castle. The outer side of 
the keep has been destroyed ; but a good turnpike stair of hard, 
well-cut red freestone, leads to the top, the highest part of the 
ruins, where there is still room for a promenade, and where a 
wide, pleasant view is gained across the undulating fields to 
long, broad, rather high hills that, at some distance, rise on 
every side. 

Raglan Castle, it is thought, was held by the Clares in the 
thirteenth century, and in the reign of Henry V. by Sir William 
ap Thomas, who built the citadel and some other remaining 
parts. His eldest son became the first Earl of Pembroke, whose 
successors held Raglan until 1506, when, by marriage, it passed 
to the earls of Worcester. In 1642 the fourth earl was created 
a marquis. He had the reputation of being the richest subject 
in England, and maintained extraordinary feudal state in this 
then splendid castle, that was shown conspicuously during two 
visits of Charles I., for whom, subsequently, this was the last 
fortress held. In June, 1646, the inevitable siege to it was laid 
by the parliamentary forces. Their heaviest guns were eighteen 
and twenty pounders, that had no effect on the body of the 
keep ; but six mortars, carrying twelve-inch shells, were used 



LUDLOW CASTLE. 313 

with more effect. Earthworks were thrown up around the 
castle by the garrison, within two hundred feet of which the 
besiegers ultimately pushed intrenchments. A breach had by 
this time been made in the walls, aritl mines were contrived. 
In the course of a month and a half, fifteen letters passed 
between the opposing commanders, relating to a surrender, 
that finally was accomplished on the nineteenth of August. 
" Raglan and Pendennis," says Dr. Beattie, " endured the 
longest sieges, and held out the last of any forts or castles in 
England " kept for Charles I. The Marquis of Worcester, aged 
eighty-four, marched out of his once splendid castle, and left 
the seat of his stately hospitality and of the royal power a 
wreck, soon made an utter ruin by the ravages of the victori- 
ous soldiers, aided by the neighboring peasantry. Time and 
the elements have since their day continued, but more slowly, 
their effective work. Still, however, the glories and graces of 
the rural feudal regime in England are impressively shown by 
the stones of its last noble stronghold, where kind Nature has 
spread her gray lichens and green veil of ivy over the shattered 
but still lordly walls and towers of Raglan. 

"Stranger ! ponder here awhile; 
Pause in Raglan's ruined pile; 
All that wealth and power, combined, 
With skill to plan and taste refined, 
To rear a structure fit to be 
The home of England's chivalry, 
Was lavished here." 

Ludlow Castle 1 represents the history of the western fron- 
tier of England since the Norman conquest. It stands in the 
southern part of Shropshire at the edge of a high rocky bank 
beside the rivers Teme and Corve, and at a corner of a large 
town, a place important even in the British period, when it was 
called Dinam, or " the palace of princes." The Saxons called 

1 See Historical Account of, and of the Supreme Court at, etc., by W. Hodges, 
8°, Ludlow, 1794. — Documents connected with the History of, by R. H. C, 
plates, 8°, 1841. — Guide to Ludlow, and Castle, by T. Price, 8°, Ludlow, 1801. 
— New Guide to Ludlow, n. d. (Felton). — Historical and Descriptive Sketch of 
Ludlow Castle, by Thos. Wright, 8°, Ludlow, 182G, and also 1854. 



314 CASTLES ON THE WELSH BORDER. 

it Leadlowe, and maintained its importance, which was increased 
by the Normans. Roger de Montgomery, related to William I., 
built a large part of the castle, and occupied it until he died, in 
1094. His son forfeited it by rebellion, and Henry I. enlarged 
it and made it a royal residence ; but many vicissitudes followed. 
It was held against Stephen, who besieged it in 1139 ; and after- 
wards the possession changed repeatedly from Crown to subject. 
In 1264, during the conflicts between Henry II. and the barons, 
Simon de Montfort took it ; and later, in the Wars of the Roses, 
it was seriously injured. But the chief importance of the 
stronghold was occasioned by its nearness to the frontier of 
Wales, and the size and strength consequent on this position ; 
hence it was provided with a strong garrison, and became a 
residence of several of the Princes of Wales, where they kept 
their courts. King Henry VIII. made it the seat of the 
" Council in the Marches of Wales," with a lord president, 
four justices, and several other officers, having an extended 
jurisdiction and forming a court, continued until 1688. No 
small degree of stateliness was maintained, and this period of 
a century and a half was the most brilliant in the history of 
Ludlow. 

During the Civil War but little serious injury was done, to 
the castle, which was given up to parliament June 9, 1646. 
After the Restoration, associations with the names and works 
of two great English poets became inseparably connected with 
the place and with the royal government, of which it for many 
years continued to be the seat. The Earl of Bridgewater, 
while lord president, heard the story of a journey made by his 
daughter and two sons towards the castle, when they were, for 
a night, lost in Haywood Forest, in Herefordshire. The music- 
teacher at the castle, Henry Lawes, a friend of Milton, asked 
him for a poem on the subject, and he wrote " Comus," that 
was set to music by Lawes ; and one of the most graceful 
English classics was performed for the first time before an 
audience such as the great earl could gather in the council- 
chamber. During the reign of Charles II., when the Earl of 
Carbery was lord president, Samuel Butler was his secretary, 
and in one of the towers wrote a part of "Hudibras." After 



LUDLOW CASTLE. 315 

the Council was dissolved, not only was no care taken of the 
castle, but plunder and spoliation ensued. As late as 1774, 
however, many of the great apartments were entire ; but since 
that date decay and ruin have sadly increased. Yet, notwith- 
standing barbarous neglect, the roofless and disintegrating 
fabric offers opportunities for restoration superior to those 
at Pierrefonds before it was rescued by Napoleon III. and 
Viollet-le-Duc. Ludlow still offers the rich West of England 
an opportunity to build and well fill an admirable museum 
of local antiquities, and at the same time preserve a noble 
historical monument. 

It is worth while to look with some care at this seat of vice- 
regal state and watch over Wales, at this home of warfare, 
law, high society, and creations of the great poets. On going 
aside from the streets of the town, one soon sees on rising 
ground a very long but not high curtain wall, curved, and half 
hidden behind many far taller trees. In this wall a low arch- 
way, with a rough wooden door, antique and heavy, opens to a 
spacious outer court, with a flat, grass-grown area. At the left 
of it is a long range of minor buildings, two stories high, con- 
structed of reddish-gray stone, and now roofless and dilapi- 
dated. At the right there is a house, still occupied, connected 
with a large garden enclosed by a wall reaching to the main 
structure of the castle, which curves out towards one and ex- 
tends across both the court and garden. Another wall, a blank 
one of no great height, bordered on each side by tall old trees, 
extends from it to the ruined buildings at the left. The castle 
itself, much the most prominent of all these objects, is now ivy- 
clad or overgrown with lichens, and extremely gray. Its front, 
rising midway along the outer court, presents a lofty keep built 
of red, and some buff, sandstone, in blocks of good size that 
were cut smooth. Towards the garden, at the right, stand 
gabled buildings constructed of flat broken stones (that are 
extensively used throughout the castle), and pierced, high up, 
by stone-shafted windows. Offsetting them, at the other side 
of the front, stand a wall and tower veiled with a dense mantle 
of ivy. Crossing a moat by a causeway, and passing through a 
low, pointed arch, one reaches an irregular inner court. Along 



316 CASTLES ON THE WELSH BORDER. 

its farther side is seen the Residence of the lords, now open 
from earth to sky. Near the centre was the great hall, with 
tall pointed windows, and at each end structures or wings of 
two stories, and a basement which contained rooms of good 
size. The part at the right is noticeably large and has several 
divisions, in one of them carved corbels, parts of chimney- 
pieces, and other details still showing how well the rooms 
were finished. Here, as at Chepstow, remains of the plas- 
tering indicate that it was laid directly upon the inside of 
the walls. Windows open towards the court, and in some of 
the apartments towards the country, and in the outer wall 
of the castle, where it rose to a great height above the bank 
fronting the rivers, over which the views are wide and delight- 
ful. Near the centre of the court is one of the most ancient 
and curious parts of the castle, the chapel, a large, round, 
detached tower now roofless, but still crowned by battlements. 
On one side is a low decorated Norman door, opposite it is a 
large high arch in the same style, and around the lower part of 
the interior wall is an arcade. Originally the surfaces higher 
up, now rough, were finished smooth with plaster, of which there 
are yet remains. At the left, or west, side of the court are ruins 
of low minor buildings, and close to the entrance, beside a small 
walled court, is the keep, with an arched basement, above 
which are three stories, now open to the sky, but originally 
lighted in each direction by windows of good size. If a worn 
red-freestone turnpike stair is ascended to a watch-tower at 
one corner of the top, a very good view can be gained. Towards 
the west it is confined by a high ridge, on which are grain-fields, 
pastures, and some trees rising from a foreground, prettily 
varied by a little shaded river. Southward, and reaching 
much farther, are seen wooded ridges. Eastward lies the 
town, backed by large ridgy heights several miles distant. 
But the best part is towards the north, far over a rather flat 
but beautiful agricultural country, which at length rises into 
long swells of land. The views gained at the base of the 
castle, while of course very different from those gained at the 
top, are quite as interesting. From a shaded walk around 
the outside, and a narrow but stately avenue, the imposing 



THE NORTHERN FRONTIER. 317 

walls that rise directly above them are well seen, as also is a 
pleasant neighborhood. 

Ludlow Castle is indeed worth visiting, for it is more com- 
plete, and in some ways more imposing, than even Kenilworth ; 
and although its keep is small compared with that at Roches- 
ter, the other parts are far more entire. In addition, the town 
is of the quaint old English sort, and of more than a common 
interest, still containing old, gabled houses with dark timber 
frames and light plastered walls, not now too plenty ; and there 
is a noble Parish church in Perpendicular style, 228 feet long. 
Although the streets are narrow, they are kept clean, and along 
them are good shops. A thoroughly old English institution 
will be found at " The Feathers," a timbered and plastered 
house three stories high, with gables and large bay windows, 
dating probably from the time of James I. It is an ideal old 
English inn, with the coffee-room lighted by the bays and 
enriched by a lofty black-oak chimney-piece and an ancient 
decorated stuccoed ceiling, making quarters for a traveller as 
uncommon as they are charming. 

Castles were erected on the western English borders at 
Oswestry, Shrewsbury, and Chester (p. 192). In the " Lands 
of Scott" (p. 378), in the chapter on "The Betrothed," the 
writer has described a notable castle at a little distance across 
the line, Dinas Bran, a ruin perched on the summit of a steep 
hill, that may not only be considered a scene in that admirable 
novel, but also a representative of the strongholds along the 
frontier of Wales and of their stirring history. 



THE NORTHERN FRONTIER (1291-1603). » 

During many centuries the inhabitants of England were 
frequently in conflict with the Scotch, as they were also with 
the Welsh. The first barrier built to withstand attacks from 

1 See Scott, Walter, Esq., The Border Antiquities of England and Scotland, 
comprising specimens of Architecture, etc., 96 plates, 2 vols. 4°, London, 1814. 

Also King, and Woolnoth, already mentioned ; and Gibson's Northumbrian 
Castles, 3 vols. 8°, 1848-1854. 



318 THE NORTHERN FRONTIER. 

the north was the great Roman wall (pp. 30-42), which was 
effective through more than three hundred years. Through 
many more succeeding them the defences were imperfect, until 
the increasing and consolidated power of England, moved by 
ambition or desire to make her territory more secure, promoted 
invasions of Scotland and raised fortresses for the protection 
of her borders. In 1291, when the succession to the Scottish 
crown was in dispute between Robert Bruce and John Balliol, 
Edward I. of England claimed to be arbitrator ; and the Scot- 
tish nobles acknowledged his authority. He decided in favor 
of Balliol, — who, however, in 1296, was in arms against him. 
The Scotch were defeated, and Sir William Wallace then en- 
deavored to expel the English, — - an effort resulting in a war 
of six years and in the subjugation of Scotland by Edward 
in 1303. Three years later Bruce was proclaimed king and 
warfare was renewed. Edward I. died soon afterward while 
beginning an invasion, and Edward II., in 1314, carried out 
the project, but was defeated at Bannockburn, and the Scots, 
in their turn, crossed the Border and advanced even into 
Yorkshire. A truce of a dozen years followed these opera- 
tions, and then hostile inroads from both sides were continued. 
Meanwhile, in 1327, the independence of Scotland was acknowl- 
edged ; yet although it lasted until 1603, — when the two crowns 
were united, at the accession of James VI. of Scotland, great 
grandson of Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., as James I. of 
England, — there were between these dates repeated, indeed 
almost constant, conflicts. Even a condensed account of them 
would form a long narrative, including a great deal of the his- 
tory of the two countries. Poetry and romance have to an 
unusual degree added their inventions or attractiveness. Great 
Border families, with their hosts of retainers, emerge from an 
uncertainty of date and fact, shadowy as the creations of the 
mists that drift over the broad moorland hills, rifted by fitful 
winds and sombre or flashing as cloud or sunshine chase each 
other across the weird scene. Percies and Douglasses in cease- 
less, relentless feud struggle at Otterbourne and Chevy Chase, 
subjects of fine old ballads bearing these names and showing 
the life on the Border in the last dozen years of the fourteenth 



BERWICK. 319 

century. Sir Walter Scott also has given to many a place in 
the region the charms that his genius could invent. Back and 
forth across the frontier the people of both countries carried 
warfare, the Scots if not going as far south as the English 
went north, yet going far enough. While Edwarpl III. was vic- 
torious in France, in the very year of Cressy (1346), King David 
invaded northern England. With French help, in 1384 the 
Scots again made an invasion, and twenty-one years later their 
prince, James, was made captive. Taking advantage of Eng- 
land when Henry V. had been winning victory in France at 
Agincourt and elsewhere, they helped the French ; and in 1459 
they poured into the country when it was distracted by the 
Wars of the Roses. At length, in 1503, the marriage of 
James IV. of Scotland and Margaret, daughter of Henry VII., 
formed a union that was to be followed a century later by 
that of the two kingdoms under their descendants. Meanwhile 
the Border feuds continued, and in 1522 a large army of 
the Scotch once more invaded England ; but their ill-success 
checked further like operations. Forty-six years afterward 
(1568) Queen Mary fled to England, and the brief rebellion of 
the great Northern lords in her behalf ensued, with such fatal 
consequences that subsequent hostilities along the Border were 
chiefly those of the local chiefs and people. 

Castles, it is evident, would be built on and near the northern 
frontier ; and examples (usually smaller than the Welsh) are 
found in almost every condition in which a medieeval English 
castle can remain, placed at favorable points and short dis- 
tances south of the old boundary line, reaching southwest from 
Berwick-on-Tweed to Solway Firth. This line was distinctly 
formed by the Tweed for about twenty miles ; thence it was 
drawn southward to and along the high and lonely Cheviot 
Hills ; and finally, in open country, by the rivers Liddel and 
Sark. 

Berwick, first and most important in the number, was 
stormed and taken by Edward I. in 1296, and for a long 
time afterward, as the foremost Border town, felt the brunt 
of war, and was several times besieged and taken by both 



320 THE NOETHERN FRONTIER. 

parties; but the old town walls and castle, built and rebuilt, 
and through centuries bulwarks of England, are now only 
shown by fragments, some of which are close by the railway 
station. Norham, 1 seven miles southwestward, was a strong 
castle on the Tweed, and is now one of the most interesting 
ruins on the Border. It was erected in 1121, but was almost 
destroyed by the Scotch in 1138. In 1154 the Bishop of Dur- 
ham built the keep, still the chief feature, for it has outlasted 
extensive outworks of a later date which remained until near 
the end of the last century, but are now only marked by 
fragments. Norham was besieged in 1215, 1322, 1327, and 
1497, and saw a great deal of other active service ; yet after 
all its historical distinction, it is probably more widely known 
as the opening scene of Scott's " Marmion." 2 Twizell Castle, 
a few miles westward, and of less age, size, and importance, 
has been converted into a residence. In Cumberland were 
Bewcastle, Rockcliff, and Drumburgh, and south of them, on 
the Irthing, were Naworth and Carlisle (see p. 215), both 
of them large and important. Naworth, an ideal Border and 
feudal castle, is mentioned on p. 41, and fully described in 
the "Lands of Scott" as an original of Osbaldistone Hall 
in " Rob Roy." Carlisle is an example of a mediaeval cas- 
tle altered and maintained for public use, and Naworth of 
one kept or restored by a great family for modern domestic 
life. It is a " romance in stone," as well as a monument of 
history. 

Less than twenty miles southeast of Berwick is the seaside 
castle of Bamborouc/h, whose Norman keep is mentioned on 
p. 59. This castle shows an imposing military structure that 
did service for centuries, with many of its ancient features pre- 
served, while adapted for use as a charitable institution. About 
midway along the coast of Northumberland and near the mouth 
of the Coquet is Warkworth, a castle of the Percies, partly in 
ruin, partly restored. It was dismantled early and late in the 
seventeenth century, but still shows its outer court — measuring 

1 Besides works mentioned (p. 302), see Jerningham's Norham Castle, 8°, 
1883. 

2 Already fully described by the writer in the " Lands of Scott," chapter 18. 



ALNWICK CASTLE. 321 

255 feet by 198 feet, or about an acre in area — and a portion of 
the walls, still 35 feet high. At one end is a very large and 
peculiar keep, partly restored, the plan of which shows a square 
with the corners cut off and a bold five-sided projection on 
each face, thus making the rooms unusual in shape, as they 
also were in number. The view from the top of the keep is 
very extensive, and includes a long reach of sea-coast and 
farming country. 

A few miles northwestward, on the Aln, is Alnwick 1 Castle, 
the chief seat of the Earls and Dukes of Northumberland . It 
is a grand example of a Border and feudal stronghold pre- 
served by a powerful family and adapted to modern uses, with 
an exterior which is an ideal of the old warlike creations, and 
an interior which is the most sumptuous to be found in any 
similar structure in England. So ancient is the castle that the 
keep has been thought to be Saxon ; but it is known to have been 
strong and important in the Norman period. Additions have 
been made from time to time, so that Alnwick is a representa- 
tive of the four classes of castles described in these pages, — the 
Norman, the Border, feudal, and modern residence. It has been 
continuously the scene of stirring and notable events, — indeed 
its long history is that of the extreme North of England and 
the relations which that has had with the country. The oastle, 
says Grose, " contains about five acres of ground within its 
outer walls, which are flanked with sixteen towers and turrets." 
To the effect of great size is added that of very irregular and pict- 
uresque forms, with a befitting earth-brown color. A curious, 
if not good, feature, that for a long time was very evident, was 
an array of quaint stone figures of warriors along the battle- 
ments. There are three courts, the inner one of which, bor- 
dered by the residence, is entered by a grand gateway that 
dates from about 1350. During the last half of the eighteenth 
century the chief apartments 2 were remodelled in the " Gothic " 

i See History of, 12°, 1813, and Tate's Alnwick, 2 vols. 1868. 

2 The dimensions of the chief apartments, according to Neale and *Grose 
are, in feet : *Great Staircase, 46 by 35, and 43 feet high ; Saloon, 42 by 39, by 
19, 10 inches ; Drawing-room, 46, 7 inches by 35, 4 inches, by 22 ; Dining-room, 
54 by 21, by 27 ; Chapel 50 by 21, 4 inches, by 22 ; *Library, 64 feet long, 16 
high; two State Bed-chambers, each 30 long. 

21 



322 THE NORTHERN FRONTIER. 

of that time ; but it has been replaced by sumptuous finish in 
Italian style, on which thirty wood-carvers, it is said, were 
employed for twelve years. The old form of feudal hall is 
represented by another, also large, but very different, making 
a stately vestibule and containing the chief staircase, which 
extends only to the main floor, while the ceiling of the hall 
itself is very lofty. Rich marbles in panels cover k the lower 
parts of the walls, and on the upper parts is a simple light- 
drab tint around four frescos representing the hunt and battle 
of Chevy Chase. Although the apartments, in their order from 
the left of the great stair, are not in a line, they are connected. 
Each of them has its distinctive design and feature. The 
Chapel, in Pointed, has a groined ceiling with gold and dark- 
blue grounds crossed by brown ribs, and walls with a high 
panelling of rich marbles inlaid in " Byzantine " style, or rather 
in early mediaeval Italian. Very different is the Library, now 
72 feet long, finished in light oak, inlaid with a lighter in fine 
scroll-work, all highly polished, and provided with three white- 
marble chimney-pieces. Around it are sixteen thousand useful, 
valuable, and handsomely bound volumes. The Reception- 
room, or Saloon, magnificently furnished, is richly finished 
in dark walnut, and the walls, like those of the other great 
apartments, are covered with silk damask and hung with pict- 
ures, many of which are Italian. Still more splendid is the 
Drawing-room, with a deep bay-window that increases the rich 
effect. In the Dining-room, which is said to be now 68 feet 
long and 28 feet high, the woodwork, including the ceiling, is 
oak, delicately and yet boldly carved. All the other ceilings 
are also of wood, panelled, superbly carved, colored, and gilded. 
Even more sumptuous are the doors, that, with their frames, 
have wonderful carvings, set off by polished surfaces. All this 
elaborate and delicate enrichment, as well as the plain early 
work, belongs to the monumental character of the castle ; for 
the rough strength of the earlier periods of warfare, and their 
ruder manners, as well as the changed condition of the coun- 
try to an age of wealth and refinement, are clearly shown 
by this vast, picturesque, and splendid seat of the Dukes of 
Northumberland. 



FEUDAL GUARDS OP THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 323 

There was a second great natural northern barrier across 
England, that of the Tyne, south of the Tweed and Cheviots. 
Along it or near it stretched the oldest line of fortifications, 
the Roman Wall (pp. 30-42), and scattered at favorable points 
were mediaeval strongholds, beginning on the east coast with 
the castle at Tynemouth (p. 271) and the Norman keep at 
Newcastle (p. 219). Farther up the Tyne there were ten cas- 
tles, all now in ruins, that might be called posts along this line 
of defence. On the south side were Prudhoe and Langley; on 
the North Tyne were Houghton and Wark. Between it and 
the South Tyne were Shewing-Shields and Simonburn ; and in 
a group near and west of Haltwhistle were Bellister, Blen- 
kinsop, Featherstonehaugh, and Thirl wall. This line was con- 
tinued in Cumberland by Naworth and other castles already 
mentioned, that were placed at the west end of the frontier. 



THE FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND 
COUNTIES. 

The castles that have been described, while in some degree 
the results of feudalism, were more distinctly associated with 
the Norman period, or the conquests of Wales and Scotland, 
than even with the powerful system that for several centuries 
had great influence in England, as it had in France, Germany, 
and Italy. This system, with a consequent structure of society, 
and a government of the country affected by both, brought 
about the erection of another class of castles, scattered through- 
out the interior of the country, or the enlargement of Norman 
works as well as their disuse, and hence their dilapidation. 
Many of these castles of the mediaeval English period are not 
only monuments of it, but also of two great wars, chiefly in- 
ternal, that had great effect on the country and formed marked 
eras in its history, yet were not the causes of the erection of 
the structures. The Wars of the Roses (1453-1485), although 
decided, as they were chiefly fought, in the open field, occa- 
sioned sieges or other operations around castles, — sometimes 
to their serious damage. The Civil War (1642-1646) was noted 



324 FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 

not only for many battles, but also for numerous investments 
of the old strongholds and for the great number of them it 
caused to be dismantled or destroyed. 

The Feudal System was effectively established in England 
by William I., although it seems to have existed there in rudi- 
mentary form among the Saxons. M. Houard thought that 
practically it was introduced by the Normans. It is not 
necessary to describe here the laws and observances of the 
system. The result produced was* that the national power, 
represented and controlled largely by the sovereign, of course 
requiring support, received it from lords owing allegiance, 
distributed through the country and concentrating in their 
keeping the local social force and dignity and much of the 
resources. It has been thought, indeed, that the system was 
stronger and more developed in England than in France, whence 
it came. Made up as the latter kingdom for a long time was of 
the possessions of lords who had gained dominant authority, 
they could give, at least in many cases, a mere nominal feudal 
allegiance to the sovereign. In England the lords derived 
their position from him ; and in the Norman period their 
domains were so divided that none of them singly could well 
concentrate their resources against him, as some of their peers 
might, and did, in France. Even the wars of the barons with 
the king in the thirteenth century only modified allegiance. 
Like their sovereign, the Norman lords were oppressive, and 
the condition of the country under them was dismal, especially 
in the reign of Stephen. While the great public need of main- 
taining the Conquest required the erection of castles, already 
described, their private needs or purposes led them to build 
others scattered through their possessions in nearly all parts 
of the country. Their successors, for reasons already men- 
tioned, here and there made the number less or greater. 
Included in it are many of the most important and interesting 
civil structures of mediaeval England, as well as many which, 
if minor works, deserve attention, even if this is here abbrevi- 
ated by necessity. 

In ruin, altered and still used as residences, and in some 
cases retaining their primitive exterior, they will be found to 



DURHAM AND YORKSHIRE. 325 

differ in plan and aspect as much as in dimensions, and to 
occupy three kinds of sites. These are a bluff above a river 
which protected one side or more ; a hill, almost invariably 
low in England ; or open land, where a moat was used for 
defence. Usually there was a large outer court and an inner 
one much smaller. 

In Durham, the next county south of the Border lands just 
described, is Durham Castle, on the Wear (p. 228), and, south- 
west of it, Barnard Castle, 1 on the Tees, built by Barnard 
Balliol towards the end of the eleventh century ; both of them 
occupying bold bluffs. Raby, six miles northeast of the latter, 
is one of the grandest and most perfect castles in all the north- 
ern counties. It is founded upon rock, but is in a compara- 
tively level country, and was surrounded by a fosse, a part of 
which remains. The famous Nevilles, who built it near the end 
of the fourteenth century, occupied it for nearly two hundred 
years. In 1648 the parliamentary forces besieged it, and 
subsequently it has been adapted to use as a modern residence ; 
but yet it retains much of its ancient character. Its outward 
form is noble and picturesque, its plan is irregular, and its 
interior effects are imposing. 

Three conditions in which mediaeval castles are now found 
is shown by these three, — that at Durham is an ancient one 
preserved, but changed for collegiate use ; that of Barnard is 
a ruin ; and Raby is, as it has been for five centuries, a seat 
of a great noble family. 

Yorkshire was perhaps as noted for the number of its castles 
as of its monasteries ; like them scattered throughout its ex- 
tensive territory, and like them nearly all for a long time in 
ruin. Both the great Norman keep and stronghold at Rich- 
mond, in the northern part, and the even older keep of Conis- 
borough, in the southern part, have been described by the 
writer. 2 

There is a drive from Richmond to Leylurn worth taking. 
At first the road leads along the Swale, — a stream which some- 
times pours great freshets down the narrow valley between 

1 Described in the " Lands of Scott " in the chapter on " Rokeby." 

2 See the " Lands of Scott," chap. 38, " Ivanhoe," pp. 354-355. 



320 FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 

the high hills bordering it. At length the way turns south- 
ward through an open country of pasturage or fields of hay 
or oats, divided by stone walls suggestive of New England. 
Solitary in this region, and so conspicuous that it arrests 
attention, is a good example of the latest and simplest form 
of a domestic fortified establishment rendered desirable or 
necessary by far less settled life than that at present. It is 
a stone manor-house, in simple yet picturesque late Tudor 
style, with most of its windows opening on two sides of a 
courtyard, the other two sides of which are formed by a high 
wall, topped by a walk protected by battlements. This court- 
yard, entered by an arched gateway, clearly shows the former 
need of defence, as also does a second court, for cattle, where 
they could be guarded from even armed parties. Altogether it 
is an illustration of the earlier insecurity of this now peaceful 
region as rare as it is striking. A few miles farther on, a 
quaint, good hotel will be reached at Leyburn, a small town 
on a hillside north of the Ure. 

Two miles and a half southward, at some distance up rising 
ground on the other side of the river, is Midclleham, a quiet 
little town adjoining the large ruins of the castle, always the 
most important structure in the neighborhood, since its keep 
was built in 1190. In the next century the Nevilles inherited 
and enlarged the works, and in the fifteenth extensive buildings 
were erected around the keep, which still remain, although in 
ruins, except on the east side, where they have been destroyed. 
They are about 240 feet long from north to south, and 175 
feet from east to west, and are constructed chiefly of flat stones 
that, where exposed, have grown dark gray. The keep was 
faced with cut stones. Remarkably good masonry has helped 
to save the walls from the effects of weather and the operations 
of the modern vandal, — indeed the walls are so thick and their 
core so strong that masses weighing several tons have fallen, 
and yet hold together; and the bodies of two turrets on the 
keep that have been undermined still stand, supported only by 
the strength of the mortar. At each of the four corners of the 
outer buildings is a huge square tower, now a mere broken 
shell. These buildings, large as they are, enclose the enormous 



MIDDLEHAM CASTLE; BOLTON CASTLE. 327 

keep so closely that the intervening space is less like a court 
than a passage. As usual, the keep was divided by a central 
wall — which here runs north and south — and was pierced 
by arches, and in each part were two stories of lofty vaulted 
halls. There was a third story on the eastern side ; but the 
other is so broken towards the top that its plan is uncertain. 
In the lower story the windows were small, but in the upper 
they were large. A turnpike-stair — fragmentary enough to 
be suggestive of a steep, risky mountain path — leads to a 
watch-turret, from which a wide, fine view is gained. It 
reaches down the broad vale, eastward, over long but gentle 
slopes of grass-land that are dotted with trees or varied by 
pleasant groves, and west of north to Leyburn on a sunny 
hillside, and to the distant towers of Bolton. Towards the 
south there is a broad green pasture, level near the castle, 
but less than half a mile off rising to a height commanding 
it, and crested with large earthworks of an oval form, now 
grass grown, from which the view in every direction is much 
more extensive. 

Middleham was not only of importance in the earlier feudal 
period and a scene of its pomps and strength, but was also 
notable in the Wars of the Roses. Edward IV. was brought 
here by the Earl of Warwick from Warwick Castle, and con- 
fined ; but he effected his escape by means not now entirely 
known, and took the field for the White Rose of York, soon to 
rise high in the ascendant. During the long period of domes- 
tic peace that followed, the castle ceased to be remarkable ; and 
at length, in the reign of Charles II., was visited by an unhappy 
fate, for it was sold to a family that seems to have bought it 
as a speculation in stone, lead, and timber. Its roofs were 
stripped, and the walls were for a long time used as a quarry. 
Another of the great English baronial monuments was thus 
dismantled ; and its shattered but still noble fragments are an 
example, not of the havoc of a civil war, but of the plunder of 
avarice. 

Bolton Castle, seven miles northwest of Middleham, is 
larger, higher, more imposing, and far less injured. It was 
built by Lord Scrope, Chancellor of England in the reign of 



328 FEUDAL GUARDS OP THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 

Richard II., and was held by his family until the time of 
Charles I. ; consequently the Scropes shaped two centuries 
and a half of baronial history associated with their grand 
seat, until November, 1645, when the parliamentary forces, 
after a long siege, took possession. On a long, but not steep, 
grassy slope, stretching from high moorland hills into the 
plain of Wensleydale, it rises a bold square mass, the sides 
of which measure 184, 131, 187, and 125 feet. At each corner 
except one is a lofty square tower (that at the northeast hav- 
ing fallen in November, 1761), all connected by tall buildings, 
now roofless. Flat stones strengthened by quoins of large 
faced blocks form the walls, and where exposed have grown 
dark-gray, a little varied on the upper parts by orange-brown 
lichens, or relieved by a few vines of ivy. Defensive strength 
was chiefly gained by the ponderous masonry, as the slope of 
the land did not allow a moat to be made. No rooms are now 
habitable except a few in the southwestern tower and parts 
adjoining ; but these must have been snug and comfortable, 
and although whitewash conceals or replaces the original finish 
on the walls and ceilings, the always charming views are still 
commanded from the windows. In the third story there is 
happily spared a very attractive room, said to have been one 
of the many prisons of Mary Queen of Scots, and to have 
been occupied by her for six months (1568-1569). From it 
she is also said to have made a romantic but difficult escape, by 
being let down from a narrow window, below which she was 
met by friends with horses. 1 Mr. Mackie says that the Queen 
was really brought from Carlisle to Bolton, and was removed 
thence to the ancient castle of Tutbury, in Staffordshire. The 
stone roof of the southwestern tower, about a hundred feet above 
the ground, commands a pleasant view stretching far up and 
down Wensleydale, where broad lowlands present a great area 
of fine green fields dotted with trees and divided by hedges. 
South of them are high, long, ridgy hills varied by moorlands 
and forests, and east, north, and west are bare elevated past- 
ures. Close beneath the castle is the little hamlet of Bolton, 

1 See Mackie, C, Castles, Palaces, and Prisons of Mary of Scotland (p. 411), 
8°, London, 1850. 



SCARBOROUGH. 329 

with its line of small stone houses ; but noticeably few villages 
are seen throughout the wide landscape. 

In northern Yorkshire there thus were before the Civil 
War, within an area of twenty miles in length and half a 
dozen in width, five important castles, of which large parts 
still exist, — Barnard (p. 325), Mortham, 1 Richmond (p. 59), 
Middleham, and Bolton, and larger than any other, there was 
Ravensworth, near Richmond. All of them were maintained 
in feudal times, and their extent required large resources used 
by several generations that had very little of the personal 
property by which estates in the country may now be sup- 
ported. No modern buildings in the regions where they stand 
can rival them in size or strength. The land was not more 
fertile centuries ago, nor was the farmer's skill superior, nor 
were the markets better. Evidently the great families own- 
ing these castles, and the institutions that made both possible, 
had for generations some hold on this Yorkshire ground and 
people not explained by theories of force or of submission, and 
that is worth some study. 

The extensive coasts of the North and East Ridings have 
few harbors that would require defences, or sites that seem to 
have been desired by niediasval castle-builders. On the former, 
at Scarborough, are, however, the remains of a great strong- 
hold by the seaside that rewards a visit, although less by what 
it is than by what surrounds it. While the name suggests the 
Saxon Scear Burgh, a rock fortified, it well describes the place, 
— a large town built on a long slope reaching to the sandy 
shores of a semicircular bay, at the southwest of which are 
high, ridgy hills, and at the north an elevated promontory 
joined to the mainland by a narrow lower isthmus. This 
last formerly was fortified with great care by walls still 
shown, although in fragments, and by a steep, long glacis 
towards the town. Above the seaward termination of the 
isthmus stands the keep, now lacking its northwestern side. 
An extensive area at the top of the promontory was well 
guarded by these works and by the height and steepness of 

1 Although this was small, it has a history of some importance, and great 
interest as a scene in " Rokeby." See the writer's " Lands of Scott," p. 82. 



330 FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 

the slopes and cliffs that front the ocean. On the exterior of 
the main part of the castle the walls are of stone, and are now 
much broken and have grown a bleached gray color, or have 
been displaced by ugly modern buildings. Far more attractive 
and very noble is the view from the grassy heights outside of 
them, inland over a hilly region covered with good fields, and 
seaward far along the coast to the south and across the seldom 
quiet German Ocean. 

Scarborough, while reputed to have been founded and held 
by the Saxons for maintenance of their conquests, became his- 
torical in the twelfth century, and has continued to have vary- 
ing importance even to the present time. Although it was 
besieged for twelve months and surrendered to the parliament 
in 1645, and again taken in 1648 and subsequently dismantled, 
it was used during the rebellion of 1745 and has of late, fur- 
nished barracks for a small force. The chief importance of the 
place now, however, is that of a modern-watering place, with 
sea-baths and mineral springs. It is the Northern Brighton ; 
and its handsome streets and great hotels make it as much an 
illustration of results in English history as are the gray and 
disjointed walls still standing on the cliffs that boldly front the 
German Ocean, across which came the early English to obtain 
and hold the fields that reach far inland. 

One of the most celebrated castles that has stood in the 
midland counties for the last three hundred years is Kenil- 
worth. 1 It was of vast size, furnished with a very large outer 
court, defended chiefly by a moat and artificial lake, and built 
at different periods, so that it showed the styles used in the 
seat of a great noble, from the huge stern Xorrnan keep to the 
latest Tudor with its shafted oriels. The writer has already 
given a description of it in a chapter on Scott's splendid 
romance, and extracts from a survey of the period. There 
are few other scenes in England where the contrast is so great 
between present desolation and the strength of feudal power 

1 See Kenilworth illustrated, or a History of the Castle, etc. ; also Lane- 
ham's Letter and Gascoigne's Princelye Pleasures (1575) ; plates, royal 4°, 
Chiswick, 1821. 



WAEWICK CASTLE. 331 

and brilliancy of courtly life told by the ivy-bound broken 
stones. Few pageants in the ancient realm have been more 
picturesque and superb than the reception here of Queen Eliza- 
beth by Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Few of the great castles that 
exist in any form have been so shattered. The Civil War, 
or rather greedy plundering then permitted, left one of the 
stateliest domestic monuments of England a mere wreck. 

Warwick Castle, a few miles southward, has as great historic 
interest, a more imposing site, and hardly less architectural 
variety ; yet it is in marked contrast with Kenilworth, for it 
is one of the most carefully preserved as well as picturesque 
mediaeval castles of the nobility in Europe. With Alnwick, 
Raby, Leeds, and Berkeley, it is prominent among the examples 
of old defensive work and feudal pomp left in Great Britain. 
The gray walls are shaped by the requirements of ancient 
usages into forms that make them ideals of the Ages of 
Romance and Chivalry, and strong as the bold rock on which 
they rise above the Avon. While the soft sunshine of to- 
day lights clearly the unbroken battlements, and dark ivy 
many a year old garlands the mossy walls, and ancient yews 
shade their broad base, their foundations are impenetrably 
hidden, not less by the earth around them than by the veil 
with which time has obscured their earliest history. From 
the clearness of the brilliant present, the thought of the visi- 
tor is led far back into the dim Saxon period when the castle 
first arose in simple form, and then throughout the thousand 
years in which it has been constantly the scene of varying 
phases of the social life of England, and gathering and pre- 
serving pictures of its changing character. William the Con- 
queror caused the small structure to be enlarged ; the Earl of 
Warwick, in 1372, rebuilt the walls and raised the prominent 
Guy's Tower, 128 feet high, with walls 10 feet in thickness ; 
and George Plantagenet, earl in the reign of Edward IV., 
increased its strength and beauty. 'Grown vast and strong 
as well as stately, the inevitable siege of the castle occurred 
in the Civil War, and it was held for the parliament ; but it 
seems to have escaped great injury. Since that time it has 
been well kept, and the chief changes have been in the reign 



332 FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 

of Charles II., when Robert, Earl of Brooke, refinished the 
State Apartments, and recently, after a fire that destroyed the 
great Hall. 

The entrance to the castle is through an impressive arch- 
way penetrating a group of ivy-mantled turrets and opening 
to a shaded road that is cut through the solid rock and leads 
to a spacious and romantic court. Here stately trees give 
greater beauty, and add to the imposing aspect of the noble 
architectural features. Everything is in admirable order. 
Portcullis, machicolations, covered ways, and other defences 
are " so perfect that they might be used at any time." The 
main building of the castle is about 300 feet in length and 
from 25 to 80 feet in breadth, the broader portion, at the 
centre, containing the entrance, dining-room, and chapel. In 
the last, the style is poor modern " Gothic," and in the second 
there is a suggestion of the Georgian era ; but the room is large 
and cheerful. In the great Hall, however, the old baronial 
grandeur of style is found, although the work is since the 
recent fire; and in respect to style, this fire resulted in im- 
provements. A great and sad loss of old armor nevertheless 
occurred. The floor, of polished red and white marble, was 
reproduced, fresh stone, with a tint like that of Caen, refaced 
the walls, and a low arched roof of massive timbers was laid 
on large plain brackets. Connected with the foot of the Hall 
are pleasant private rooms, and placed in a line extending from 
the head are the State Apartments, five in number, that were 
finished in the reign of Charles II. All are in similar style, 
by no means mediaeval, and all are panelled ; but the coloring 
is varied. In one it is gold and crimson ; in another red cedar 
is used ; a third is in white and gold ; and one is in pale green 
and gold. Splendor combined with comfort is additionally 
given by an abundance of rich and curious furniture and 
numerous paintings of great interest and value, among which 
Rembrandt, Vandyck, and Rubens are nobly represented. From 
the windows, placed seventy-two feet above the river, there is a 
lordly view across the Avon and the park. Beneath these chief 
apartments there are minor rooms retaining much more of the 
ancient character. 



LEEDS CASTLE. 333 

Although the castle is not as large and rich as Pierrefonds, 1 
it is more venerable, and has charms that are wanting in the 
great French restoration. Warwick is not a modern master's 
reproduction of the pomp and spirit of the Middle Ages ; a 
large part of it is the living reality. 

Two other castles remarkable for age, history, and archi- 
tectural character, and also now residences, are likewise 
remarkable representative monuments of English life and 
institutions. 

Leeds Castle? five miles from Maidstone, in Kent, is of great 
size, and, in contrast with Warwick, is surrounded by a lake-like 
reach of river converted into a moat. Its site has been fortified 
since the Saxon period ; but the existing structure, enclosing 
three acres and standing on three islands, dates from various 
times since the Norman Conquest, and has been restored or re- 
newed since 1822, chiefly in the style of the reign of Henry VIII. , 
the time when much of it was built. Placed in a noble park, 
surrounded by eleven acres of water, and constructed of gray 
stone, with picturesque and varied walls and towers, it presents 
one of the most striking illustrations of the freshness as well 
as age of the established forms of English domestic life that 
can be found in the country. Only a plan can show the arrange- 
ment of so spacious and curious a structure. It has the ad- 
vanced works, the large outer court, the main building, and a 
detached " old castle," or " Gloriette," approached by a bridge 
with two draws, unusual in England, that suggest a great 
mediaeval French chateau. Two barbicans and another draw- 
bridge protect while they give access to the entrance. Grouped 
around it are the stables and a lodge with two stories, and 
beyond it is the extensive Inner Bailey, with ground nearly 
twenty feet above the water, bounded on each side by bastioned 
walls. Across the farther end stands the main building, meas- 
uring about 80 by 150 feet, two stories high, and dating prac- 
tically since 1822, although originally Elizabethan. Built with 
shafted windows, battlements, and turrets, it shows far less of 

1 See the writer's " Historical Monuments of France," pp. 119-122. 

2 See " The History and Description of Leeds Castle, Kent," by Charles 
Wykeham Martin, F.S.A., folio, illustrated, Westminster, 1869. 



334 FEUDAL GUAEDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 

the old defensive arrangements than do the bastioned walls. 
These latter, together with the five drawbridges and a sally- 
port in the " old castle," are unusually interesting evidences of 
the provisions made against attack, while the main building is 
an example of the new style of domestic edifices that replaced 
those of an earlier and far more warlike period. The Gloriette 
has experienced various changes, the more recent of which have 
been to restore to it its mediaeval or Tudor forms and aspect. 
Leeds castle has been chiefly a stronghold or residence of dif- 
ferent families, but at times has been occupied by royalty ; yet, 
as Mr. Martin says, " in its highest and palmiest days it was 
far inferior to our conception of a royal residence." It isj 
however, a noble monument of the old baronial life. 

Berkeley Castle, Gloucestershire, is in several respects one 
of the most extraordinary private residences in Great Britain, 
or, it might be safely said, in Europe. It dates from the 
Norman period ; and as early as 1150 was enlarged by Robert 
Fitzhardinge, grandson of Sueno, king of Denmark, to whom it 
was granted by Henry II., and whose descendants have held it 
for five and twenty generations. Since it had " some repairs 
in the reign of Henry VII.," it has been little changed, says 
Neale ; who adds that " the chapel, the oldest private chapel 
known, the great Hall, the Kitchen, of curious workmanship, 
the great Dining Chamber, etc., have remained more than seven 
centuries in use for the purposes for which they were originally 
constructed." Although the castle was held for the king in 
the Civil War, and was besieged for nine days and surrendered 
to the parliament, it was remarkably preserved. According to 
Mr. Hall, it was the last of the strongholds that held out for 
Charles I. It stands near the village, a place of " half mari- 
time character," he adds, in a neighborhood retaining so much 
of its old aspect that " one may imagine the peasants and 
farmers, whose quaint homesteads environ the strong castle, 
the dependents and retainers of four centuries ago." Sim- 
plicity and massiveness characterize the structure, the plan of 
which is made up of walls, rooms, and passages of great irreg- 
ularity surrounding an inner court and bordering a large part 
of an outer one. Beside the former is the Great Hall, the 



BEEKELEY AND HERSTMONCEAUX CASTLES. 335 

width and height of which is 32J feet, and the length 61 
feet. Some of the ancient features have disappeared here, 
and many of the other apartments are adapted to the wants 
of modern life ; but they are still very antique, and are well 
furnished with old objects. In the minor rooms and pas- 
sages the curious arrangements and designs of early ages are 
apparent. Like all ancient castles, Berkeley has its grim tra- 
dition, and the room is shown where Edward II. is said to 
have been murdered. " It is a dismal chamber," Walpole 
wrote, " almost at the top of the house, quite detached, and to 
be approached only by a kind of foot-bridge." But the lords 
of the castle are exonerated from the crime, particularly as 
it may not have been perpetrated on their premises. Berke- 
ley, as Dallaway has said, is a place where. " the very Genius 
of Chivalry seems to present himself with a sternness and 
majesty of air . . . amidst such a scene " as calls to remem- 
brance " the generous virtues which were nursed in those 
schools of fortitude, honor, courtesy, and wit, the mansions 
of the ancient nobility." 

Herstmonceaux Castle, Sussex, four miles north of Pevensey 
(60-61), is not only an example of the mediaeval castle in its 
latest development, when the defensive forms were used as 
much for stateliness as for security, and when windows were 
freely introduced, but it is also the first large building in Eng- 
land since the time of the Romans made entirely of bricks, a 
material that has become peculiarly English. 

Roger de Fiennes, or Fynes, Treasurer of the Household to 
Henry VI., is said to have built the castle in 1448. He placed 
it on a quiet and sheltered, but not impressive, site at the bot- 
tom of a shallow valley near where that opens towards low lands 
reaching to the sea. It was thus easy to make the large moat 
which formerly surrounded the structure and is still plainly 
shown by its outlines. The north and south fronts, says Grose, 
are 206^ feet long, those east and west are 214£ feet, and tur- 
rets flanking the main entrance are 84 feet high. In the latter 
part of the last century the estate, after passing by descent for 
three centuries from Sir Roger through the lords Dacre, was 
bought by Mr. Naylor, and in 1777 a person who received it 



336 FEUDAL GUARDS OF THE MIDLAND COUNTIES. 

from him by inheritance dismantled and almost destroyed the 
castle. Until that date, says Brayley, it was " the most perfect 
and regular castellated house in the kingdom." The fanatics 
who were heated by the passions of the French Revolution 
fifteen years later had a lesson taught them by a cold-blooded 
English " gentleman," whose intelligence seems to have been 
worthy of the variety which in his day was attempting to 
coerce America. 

The way to the castle from the church (that stands on ele- 
vated land) is by a long and gentle slope of grass-ground, 
from which there is a view of the main front and of the retired, 
well wooded pastoral country in the neighborhood. Ivy envel- 
ops a large part of the walls of the castle ; but where they 
can be seen they show the brickwork, now dull red, with 
courses separated by large lines of white mortar, and sur- 
faces flecked, or partly covered, with pale-grayish lichens. 
The great entrance-arch, the battlements, and window cas- 
ings are of gray stone ; but the amount of this material used 
makes but a slight appearance on the expanse of bricks. 
Around the west side of the castle the moat, though dry, is 
still distinct, and on the outer border is lined by a brick wall 
and shaded by a row of enormous walnut-trees. Around the 
east side the moat was a broad but oblong pond, the former 
bottom of which is now like a meadow, over which one of 
the best views of the outside of the castle is obtained. The 
exterior walls, about a yard thick, especially those of the main 
front, are still tolerably entire ; but all within them is a wreck. 
Originally they enclosed a large court like that of an ancient 
college and two small courts, reached by a narrow bridge and 
through a once grand entrance, now closed by a very shabby 
door (an admittance through which is at a charge of two and 
sixpence, as the writer found). A few vaultings and one small 
brick turnpike-stair, all near the entrance, are the only unde- 
stroyed parts of the interior, the area of which is grass-grown, 
encumbered by fragments, or shaded by a large tree. Enough 
remains to prove that the design of the buildings must have 
shown picturesque windows and other features. In a line with 
the first bridge there is another leading to a large oblong 



THE ANCIENT COLLEGES. 337 

garden at the north, now a sort of orchard, enclosed by the old 
brick wall and crossed at the farther end by a terrace, in the 
centre of which are the remains of a round basin of a fountain. 
These few features and a long hedge of box, four feet in height 
and a yard thick, are the only representatives of former beauty. 



THE ANCIENT COLLEGES. 

Intimately associated with the domestic, civil, and religious 
life of mediaeval and modern England, and an important and 
visible connection between the long period of which the monu- 
ments have been described on the preceding pages and that yet 
to be reviewed, are the great ancient colleges. 

Oxford and Cambridge, the two pre-eminent collegiate cities, 
are unique. They have together shaped the higher education 
and helped in no small degree to mould the thought of a nation 
for well nigh a thousand years. Their w*ork for centuries has 
been wrought, where their spirit is enshrined, in two such 
groups of curious, picturesque, or stately buildings as are no- 
where else found, and that never elsewhere will be possible. 
The life and strength of Christian and enlightened England 
have received immeasurable inspiration in their quaint or noble 
halls and courts, where the arts as well as history of the faith 
and civilization of one of the world's greatest peoples are charm- 
ingly illustrated. 

While a sketch of them — necessarily very condensed — is 
given here, the number forming the two universities is so great 
(twenty colleges, besides five halls, the Galleries, the Bodleian 
and Radcliffe Libraries, and the Divinity School, at Oxford, and 
fourteen colleges and three halls at Cambridge) that a full 
description, or the details, must be sought for in handbooks and 
histories. 

At Oxfoed 1 Alfred the Great founded University College ; 
but the oldest institutions there date chiefly from the thirteenth 

1 See Ackerman, E., History of the University of Oxford, etc., 113 colored 
plates, 2 vols., imp. 4°, London, 1814-15. — Delamotte, W. A., Views of Edifices, 

22 



338 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES : OXFORD. 

century, as is also the case at Cambridge. University College 
was re-established by William of Durham in 1249 ; Balliol was 
founded by the father of the Scottish king about 1203 ; and 
Merton by Walter de Merton, Bishop of Rochester, in 12G4. 
Exeter dates from 1314, and derives its name from Walter 
de Staplcdon, Bishop of Exeter, its founder ; Oriel was begun 
in 1326 by Edward II., who carried out a project of his almo- 
ner ; Queen's in 1340 by the chaplain of the consort of Edward 
III. ; and New in 1380 by William of Wykeham, the great 
Bishop of Winchester, the noble buildings of which, finished 
in 1386, have been but little changed. In the next century 
the number of establishments was increased successively by 
Lincoln in 1427, All Souls in 1437, St. Mary Magdalen in 
1458, the Schools in 1439, and the Divinity School, built 
between 1445 and 1480. Before the Reformation, Brasenose 
in 1509, Corpus Christ! 1516, and Christ Church 1525, were 
added. Of these thirteen colleges ecclesiastics were founders 
of eleven. The Pointed style that prevailed in their time was 
used, and examples of its variations are shown from the Early 
Decorated, in the treasury and choir at Merton, dating about 
1280, to the debased so-called Gothic of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, the latest of which is the Tom tower at Christ Church 
by Wren in 1682. A monastic plan, modified, was adopted 
naturally by the ecclesiastic founders, and certain features were 
also common in their structures. A chapel, a large hall, and 
minor rooms for the use of undergraduates and others, were 
grouped around a quadrangle, and to most of the colleges 
gardens were joined. This general arrangement became an 
established one, and was continued in the buildings of the col- 
leges founded after the Reformation even to Keble, begun in 
1868. All the styles prevalent from time to time since the long 
period of the Pointed were used, — mixed styles, the English 
Renaissance, treatment of Roman, and finally the designs of 

etc. at. imp. folio, London, 1843. — Oxford Delineated, plates by J. Whissell and 
T. Bartlett, 4°, Oxford, 1831. — Parker, J. H. and J., Handbook for Visitors, 
fine plates, 8°, do. 1858. — University Statutes, translated by G. K. M. Ward 
and Jas. Hey wood, 2 vols. 8°, London, 1845-51. (Latin editions, 1634, 1638, 1708, 
1768) — There is a very large number of general and special works on Oxford. 



OXFORD : NEW COLLEGE. 339 

the Gothic Revival, both according to ancient native models 
and the eclectic taste that introduced some Continental features. 
A unique collection of peculiar buildings showing great archi- 
tectural variety was thus formed, occupying a large district of 
an important city in the interior of the country which has 
grown around them, chiefly on account of their existence. 
Details of the administration of these institutions cannot be 
given here, and it may be enough to state that the students 
were originally gathered in societies occupying rented houses, 
called Inns or Halls, and then Colleges, when they were begun 
in the thirteenth century. The Halls are not, like the Colleges, 
incorporated, but have the same privileges. All have a head 
officer, with different titles in the different institutions, and 
minor officers, who are presided over by a Chancellor and a 
Vice-Chancellor, and who meet in convocation to form laws 
for the University, the federation of the various bodies, which, 
furthermore, is represented in Parliament by two members. 

While the edifices occupied by the many parts of the Uni- 
versity are very numerous, and all have their peculiar features 
and attractions, a fair conception of the group can be formed by 
a view or sketch of several which are representative or more 
important. New College, now more than five hundred years 
old, is a magnificent memorial of one of the noblest ancient 
English prelates, and contains some of the best work in the 
medieval Pointed styles at Oxford, dating from 1380 to 1386. 
William of Wykeham's foundation, it is said, marked a new 
era, when the Aularian system was abandoned ; and his exam- 
ple became the model of nearly all subsequent foundations at 
Oxford, and also at Cambridge. Externally, the college is far 
less imposing than are many others, for on the approach little 
else is seen than a simple monastic gateway at the end of a 
lane ; but this gives access to a quadrangle and to cloisters 
earlier than any others at Oxford, and worthy of a great abbey. 
They measure 130 by 85 feet, and have aisles with a pointed 
roof of closely set rafters of Spanish chestnut, said to be the 
original wood, and thus shown to be far more durable than 
some of the stone used in the city. Still better is the chapel, 
one of the glories of the University, 100 feet long, 35 feet wide, 



340 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES ! OXFORD. 

and 65 feet high. Across the lower end is an ante-chapel, 80 
by 35 feet, that like the chapel itself has a high groined ceiling 
and lofty traceried windows set above a deep belt of wall faced 
with oak stalls covered by high canopies. Effectively con- 
trasted with a pale stone used is the admirable colored glass, 
much of it as old as the building, and a trophy of very ingeni- 
ous preservation from threatened ruin at the Reformation. In 
addition, some of it, on the south side, is Flemish of the seven- 
teenth century; some dates from 1765 and 1774; and a large 
window at the west end, put up in 1777, was designed by Sir 
Joshua Reynolds. Extensive repairs were made on the roof 
and elsewhere in 1789, and an original reredos with fifty niches 
(one of the richest in Britain) which had been mutilated and 
plastered, was partially restored, — a saving work much more 
thoroughly done, at a cost of £25,000, in 1879. 

Worthy as a companion of this majestic and beautiful 
design of the fourteenth century is the chapel of Exeter, 
considered the finest in Oxford, built under the direction of 
Sir G-. G. Scott in 1857-1858. Its form suggests the upper 
part of the Sainte-Chapelle at Paris, and the design, chiefly 
executed in a pale Bath stone, although marked by simplicity 
and dignity, includes elaborate details. There is a vaulted 
roof borne by clustered shafts, some of which are of polished 
serpentine, rising from corbels of great beauty. A screen at 
the entrance is superb, as also is an arcade around the apse 
that has a background of mosaics on gold grounds by Salviati 
of Venice. In 1858 a chapel, the fourth in succession, was 
built for Balliol from designs by Mr. Butterfield, in which the 
then growing fondness for striking features of the Continental 
Pointed styles are shown. Bands of alternate red and buff are 
prominent on the exterior, and abundant polychrome and some 
good metal work on the interior. 

At Keble, by the same architect, is a still more remarkable 
chapel, which was dedicated in 1876, and cost £ 30,000. It is 
124 feet long, 35 feet wide, and 70 feet high, and is profusely 
ornamented with color, carvings, and mosaic. The most im- 
portant ecclesiastical edifice of any of the colleges is, however, 
at Christ Church, described on page 170, with the Cathedrals, 



MERTON, MAGDALEN, CHRIST CHURCH. 341 

among which it ranks. Another of the noblest works in the 
Pointed style at Oxford, which may be classed with the chapels, 
is the hall of the Divinity School, built between 1445 and 1480, 
in graceful and elaborate Perpendicular. Its low arched, boldly 
ribbed, and richly traceried ceiling, and its sides also filled with 
tracery, closed, or in windows, make it one of the most remark- 
able designs of its date. Other notable examples of the ancient 
native styles are found at Merton, the chapel of which deserves 
high rank. It has a nave, transept, and central tower, and 
Decorated windows of unusual beauty, built between 1275 and 
1424. The treasury, dating from near 1280, is one of the old- 
est civil buildings in the city. At Magdalen are some of the 
few collegiate cloisters ; a tall tower, unrivalled at Oxford, built 
between 1492 and 1498 ; some of the most picturesque build- 
ings in the city ; and grounds as remarkable, measuring about 
one hundred acres, eleven of which are covered by the courts 
and buildings. 

TJie halls of the colleges are of scarcely less interest than 
the chapels. New contains the oldest of them ; but while its 
diapered panelling and Pointed windows remain, its character 
is, or long was, much injured by a flat whitewashed ceiling, of 
Georgian " neatness," bad enough to rouse the avenging shade 
of William of Wykeham himself. The largest and grandest 
hall is that of Christ Church, in Perpendicular style, dating 
from 1529, — a noble monument of the munificence and taste 
of its founder, Cardinal Wolsey. Its high wainscot, hung with 
about a hundred and twenty portraits of great value, reaches 
to a wall pierced by tall traceried windows, above which rises a 

Note. — The dimensions of some of the more important parts of several 
colleges, in feet, will give an idea of their importance : — 

Quadrangles. —Christ, 264 X 261 ; Keble, 243 X 220 ; All Souls (two) 172 X 155, 
and 124X72; Wadham, 130X130; Merton (2d of two), 110X110; Corpus 
Christi, 101 X 80 ; University, 100 X 100 ; Jesus (two), 100 X 90, and 90 X 70 ; 
Lincoln (two), 80 X 80, and 70 X 70. 

Halls. — Christ* 115X40, and 50 high; Wadham* 82X35, and 37 high; 
Oriel, 50X20; Queen's, 60X30; New, 78X35; Lincoln, 42X25; Corpus,* 
50 X 25. 

Libraries.— Christ, 161 X 30; All Souls, 200 X 39; Wadham, 53X20; Queen's, 
120 X 30 ; Worcester, 120 long. 

Front of Christ's, 400 long. Total area of Queen's, 300 X 220. Exeter, front 
200 long. Magdalen has three courts. 

* Timber roofe. 



342 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES : OXFORD. 

superb oak timber roof, with tracery and carving of true Eng- 
lish character. Undoubtedly the society gathered at the long 
dining-tables spread here daily is quite worthy of the archi- 
tecture ; and if the dinners also are, it would indeed be difficult 
to name a rival of this glorious refectory, approached also by 
a befitting staircase of noble proportions, covered by a rich fan- 
traceried ceiling. This sort of hall, although on a smaller scale, 
is found in the older colleges, and has been used in recent times 
where halls have been rebuilt, as at Pembroke. Balliol has 
another good example, measuring 90 by 36 feet, designed by 
Mr. Waterhouse and opened in 1877. 

While the styles based on Italian prevailed, they were used, 
as in the hall and new chapel of Queen's. The most strik- 
ing example is perhaps the chapel at Worcester, a work of 
the last century, formerly showing its bare " classic " sort of 
design, but not long ago transformed to elegant and gorgeous 
cinque-cento, with abundant color and gilding. The floor is 
inlaid, and the stalls have rich intarsiatura decoration. More 
marked designs in modified Roman are shown by buildings of 
greater size and importance. The Theatre, 80 by 70 feet, where 
the great University meetings and ceremonies are held, was 
erected under the care of Sir Christopher Wren between 1664 
and 1669. Sir John Vanbrugh, in 1713, finished the Clarendon 
Building, close by, in characteristic adaptation of classic forms. 
This edifice for a long time contained the celebrated Press 
known by its name, given because a portion of its cost was 
derived from the sale of copies of Lord Clarendon's History of 
the Rebellion. The Radcliff Library is a detached dome, like 
an enormous baptistery, surrounded by an engaged Corinthian 
colonnade on a high basement. Planned and designed by Gibbs, 
and executed between 1737 and 1749, it is original, and unlike 
anything else at Oxford. In 1840 the large and expensive 
Taylor Institution and University Galleries were begun, from 
designs by C. R. Cockerell. They are the latest as well as larg- 
est examples of classic styles in modern treatment in the great 
collegiate group, appropriate, it may be, for a seat of classic 
learning rather than in a place so intensely English among 
so many admirable works in the native and national styles. 



NEW MUSEUM; MARTYRS' MEMORIAL. 343 

The Gothic Revival is represented by many notable designs 
at Oxford. Besides chapels already mentioned, several fronts 
and various parts of colleges and the whole of Keble, two 
prominent examples of works for other purposes well deserve 
attention. The New Museum, connected with the study of the 
modern sciences, was begun in 1855, and has been subsequently 
continued at intervals. Its buildings, forming a quadrangle, 
show an English picturesqueness of outline, Italian treatment 
of some of the windows, and sharp roofs suggestive of French 
designs. A roof of glass and iron covers the central area, and 
is treated in a mediaeval manner. On the four sides of the 
area are cloister-like arcades with polished shafts, statuary, 
voussoirs of light and dark stone, and capitals carved so that 
they form a large exhibition of the botany of various periods 
and places. One of the chief features of the exterior is the 
chemical laboratory, that in a general way resembles the 
kitchen of Glastonbury Abbey, among the few parts of that 
once vast establishment that still exist. 

At the end of the broad St. Giles Street stands another 
important modern work in the Pointed style, the Martyrs' 
Memorial, built in 1841. It is an elaborate limestone Cross in 
Decorated style, 73 feet high, designed from the Eleanor Cross 
at Waltham, but more beautiful and richer. Statues of the three 
great martyrs, Cranmer, Latimer, and Ridley, look down from 
its exquisitely canopied niches. One of the peculiar and most 
graceful forms of English mediaeval design is thus reproduced 
with new and greater charms to help keep in memory the ex- 
amples of devoted piety and patriotism in which these bishops 
were true, even to the death by fire that they met close by in 
Broad Street, near a spot now marked by a stone cross set into 
the pavement. There, in October, 1555, the flames that burned 
them, answering their prayer, gave forth a light which by 
God's blessing has continued shining, and which never will go 
out in England. Well might the best of ancient taste and 
modern skill in the arts of the country be united as they are 
here in this memorial. 

The gardens, lawns, and shaded walks belonging to the col- 
leges, especially along the borders of the city, are some of the 



344 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES. 

most delightful of its many attractive places, and as uncommon 
as the varied picturesque structures with which they are admi- 
rably grouped. Christ Church Meadow, of fifty acres, on the Tsis, 
is surrounded by a walk a mile in length, and has on one side 
a magnificent avenue of elms, called the Broad Walk. Adjoin- 
ing it are Morton Fields, including a part of the old town walls, 
a terrace walk, and charming gardens. Magdalen Water Walk, 
towards the Cherwell, although narrower than that at Christ 
Church, is longer, winding, and even more beautiful. Of course 
the city has commercial parts and houses of a common English 
character ; but the collegiate buildings are so numerous and 
extensive that they give to a large division, as has been said 
already, an effect as rare as it is imposing. Many of these 
buildings may seem low, and their appearance in some places is 
much injured by the badness of the stone used in them, for the 
surface is disintegrated and has peeled off so that it suggests 
a ragged coat of very thick and ugly paper-hanging ; but the 
general aspect of Broad, High, and several lesser streets is 
noble and imposing, and the college grounds, in monastic 
courts, or spacious gardens, or beneath grand trees, abound in 
fresh and exquisite beauty that makes the wide, varied group 
of the antique and modern academic seats charming, while 
venerable and perpetually attractive. 

Cambridge 1 is only less wonderful than Oxford for the rea- 
son that it has fewer colleges placed in a smaller city, which, 
although it is an ancient place, and has the business of a broad 
level agricultural country extending around it, also owes its 
chief importance to the University. Like Oxford, it has its 
commercial or town part, and although its colleges are more 
scattered, there is a long group that makes Trumpington 
Street a rival of " the High." The establishment of a school 
here may date from the sixth century ; but the early history 

1 See Ackerman, R., History of the University, etc., 94 colored plates, 2 vols, 
imp. 4°, London, 1814. — Le Keux's Memorials of Cambridge ; text by T. Wright 
and H. L. Jones, 76 plates, 8° and 4°, London, 1845. -- Storer, A. J. et H. S., 
Collegiorum Portae, Cambridge, n. d. — Hartshorne, Rev. C. H., Book Rarities 
in the University, 8°, London, 1829. — Early Statutes, 13-16 cent., collected by 
Jas. Heywood, 2 vols. 8°, London, 1855. 



CAMBKIDGE. 345 

of the University is obscure. St. Peter's College, the oldest, 
was founded in 1257. Two Halls and four colleges were 
added in the fourteenth century, one Hall and four colleges 
in the fifteenth, and three more colleges in the sixteenth, 
before the University was incorporated, in the 13th of Eliza- 
beth, as the " Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the Uni- 
versity of Cambridge." Before the Reformation the number 
of ecclesiastics among the founders was less than at Oxford, 
but similar monastic plans and designs were used. Both 
Renaissance and Classic styles were adopted when they were 
prevalent, and the effect of the Gothic Revival also appears. 
Lawns, gardens, deep green ivy, and majestic trees spread 
grace and beauty almost everywhere among or near the aca- 
demic buildings, and the quiet, narrow Cam that winds close 
to some of the oldest, and is spanned by quaint bridges, adds 
to the charming picturesqueness. If the monuments of Eng- 
lish art and history here are fewer than at Oxford, there are 
some that are of great interest, or that are unrivalled. 

King's College Chapel is the largest and stateliest in Eng- 
land, and indeed may fairly be considered the most noble 
structure of its kind in the world. It is detached, and stands 
on the north side of a great collegiate quadrangle. Henry VI. 
laid the corner-stone July 25, 1446, and work was continued 

Note. — The Colleges and Halls were founded at the dates given below, and 
the dimensions of chapels, quadrangles, and halls are in feet, according to Acker- 
man, Parker, and others : — 

1257, St. Peter's, two quads., largest, 144 X 84 ; hall, 48 X 24. 

1326, Clare Hall, quad., 150 X 111; hall, 69 X 21, and 25 high. — 1343, Pem- 
broke, chap. 54 X 24, and 30 high ; hall, 42 X 27. — 1347, Cuius, hall, 39 X 21. — 
Trinity Hall, hall, 36 X 24, and 24 high. — 1351, Corpus Christi, quad., 158 X 129 ; 
chap., 75 X 25, and 33 high ; hall, 62 X 27, and 35 high ; library, 87 X 22, and 25 
high. 

1441, King's, chap., 316 X 84. — 1446, Queen's, two quads., largest, 96 X 84.— 
1456, Christ, quad., 140 X 120 ; chap., 80 X 27, and 30 high ; hall, 45 X 27, and 30 
high. — 1475, Catharine Hall, quad., 180 X 120 ; chap., 75 X 30, and 36 high. — 
1496, Jesus, quad., 140x120. 

1511, St. John's, three quads.; hall 60x30. — 1519, Magdalen, two quads.; 
chap. 48 X 18 ; hall, 45 X 18, and 21 high. — 1546, Trinity (founded on Michael 
House, 1324, and King's Hall, 1337), quad., S. 287, N. 257^ E. 325, W. 344 ; chap., 
204 X 33, and 44 high ; hall, 102 X 40, and 56 high ; library, 200 X 40, and 38 
high. — 1584, Emanuel, chap., 84 X 30, and 27 high. — 1598, Sidney, two quads. ; 
chap., 57 X 24 ; hall, 60 X 27. 

1807, Downing, one very large quad. 



346 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES. 

for a hundred years, or towards the end of the reign of 
Henry VIII. The plan shows an immense nave with chap- 
els at the sides, but without aisles, lighted by twelve windows, 
nearly fifty feet high, on each side, and covered by a marvel- 
lous stone roof — a masterpiece of English masonry — with 
elaborate ribbing and tracery. So rich and noble is the Per- 
pendicular here used, that it is quite worthy of companionship 
with contemporaneous French Flamboyant. Externally the 
chapel is 816 feet long, and has on each side between the win- 
dows a range of large pinnacle-crowned buttresses connected 
by an open parapet, rising to a height of 90 feet. Each cor- 
ner of the building is accented by a slender octagonal tower 
with a spire-like top 146 feet high. Throughout, the masonry 
is of stone, in some places worn, in others mended ; the pre- 
vailing color being a light gray. Mr. Fergusson, in his " Modern 
Architecture" (pp. 11-16), has compared King's Chapel 1 with 
the contemporary Sistine at Rome, — a magnificent example of a 
very different Italian style, — and has shown the contrast. In 
the English design the chief decoration is given by the forms 
and materials of the construction, and in the Roman almost 
entirely by paintings on the surfaces of the walls and ceiling. 
Both chapels have a great amount of color, that in the English 
design is concentrated in gorgeous windows filled with grouped 
figures interfered with by the tracery, but contrasted with a 
uniform pale-buff of the stone used throughout in construction 
and in most of the decoration ; while the Italian walls are 
covered with an almost unbroken painting. Although this 
shows higher art, the English shows more truth and inven- 
tive power in architecture. Stripped of color, the English is 
the nobler work. Its vast size, its proportions, its superb 
glass, toned by time, and, above all, its magnificent and richly 
wrought or sculptured masonry, make King's Chapel both a 
glorious place of Christian worship and a most imposing 
monument of the earlier half of the Tudor period. 

At Cambridge, examples of the Pointed styles are less 
numerous than those of others subsequently prevalent. A 

1 King's is, internally, 290 by 45 feet, 78 feet high, and has twelve bays. The 
Sistine is, internally, 140 by 45 to 50 feet, 60 feet high, and has six bays. 



CAMBRIDGE. 347 

picturesque design in English Renaissance is shown in the 
front of the library at Magdalen, and another in the Hall 
of Trinity, one of the noblest buildings of its kind, that has 
two grand oriels, a panelled wainscot, a lofty screen, and high 
pitched roof of timber, in the peculiar English manner, Gothic 
in form, but Renaissance in detail. Semi-classic is shown in 
the chief parts of Emanuel and on the exterior and interior 
of Trinity, the latter of which is light and noble. In more 
distinctly Roman style are the Public Library, the Chapel of 
Pembroke by Sir Christopher Wren, Clare Hall, the Senate 
House, finished in 1730, and the New Buildings at King's by 
the same architect, Gibbs. The most classic building of the 
University, which may fairly be thought to surpass any example 
in its style at Oxford, is the Fitzwilliam Museum, designed by 
Basevi, and begun in 1837. An imposing portico, of the Corin- 
thian order, extends along the front, flanked by large piers with 
pilasters, and varied by a rich advanced pediment in the centre 
rising to a height of seventy-five feet. A suite of five large 
rooms contains a great collection of fine books, engravings, 
drawings, music, and pictures, that represent well the Italian 
and Dutch schools. 

The grounds and gardens at Cambridge, if of less extent 
than those at Oxford, are extremely beautiful, especially the 
College Walks across the Cam, extending opposite the river 
fronts of several of the colleges, and covering many acres. 
From the path beneath a long and noble avenue of trees 
upon the farther side, or from the spacious lawns between it 
and the stream, are exquisite views of King's College Chapel, 
the new buildings of St. John's, especially of the central tower 
and entrance to the cloisters, and up the stately although nar- 
row avenue from the gates of Trinity. Among the countless 
picturesque scenes found in England there are few like this ideal 
of her peculiar beauty, full of suggestions of her history, where 
so many of her noblest sons have walked and gained, insensibly, 
perhaps, an inspiration to invaluable labor in her service. 

The Libraries of the two Universities might properly be 
described in one chapter, and only a long one would do justice 



348 THE ANCIENT COLLEGES. 

to them. So numerous are they, and so great is the variety of 
the styles of the many rooms and halls used for them, that 
they are like symbols of the greater diversity of literature with 
which they are crowded. No less interesting is the story of 
the ways by which the aggregate immense amount of books 
and manuscripts has been collected on the shelves ; yet mere 
mention of it can be made here, and it must be sought for in 
Mr. Edwards's excellent narrative. 1 Not only are these libraries 
rich in classic and other foreign literature, but also in illus- 
trations of the history of the country and of the men by whom 
it has been shaped or preserved. 

The other ancient colleges and prominent Public Schools 2 of 
England, also sources of her greatness, are also among her 
noblest monuments, and are well represented by her art. Wil- 
liam of Wykeham, a prince and pioneer in good works, obtained 
the charter, dated November 26, 1379, for the college that he 
founded at Winchester, the buildings of which were erected 
between 1380 and 1386, and have already been described on 
p. 124. Henry VI., in 1440, founded the College at Eton; 
and Henry VIII. another at Westminster. Five of the great 
Public Schools date from the sixteenth century, three of which 
were founded by civilians. In 1512 Dean Colet established St. 
Paul's ; Christ's Hospital was begun in 1553 by Edward VI. ; 
the Merchant Taylors' about 1560 ; Rugby a few years later by 
the munificence of Lawrence Sheriff, a grocer of London, who 
died in 1567 ; Harrow was founded by John Lyon, yeoman, in 
1590 ; and the Charterhouse by Thomas Sutton in 1613. 

While all these colleges and schools are prominent and inter- 
esting, and have buildings well worth visits and description, 
Eton may be mentioned as a great representative. Its build- 
ings, standing on the meadows near the Thames, a mile away 
from the majestic towers of Windsor and with a full view of 
them, form two quadrangles, the front of which is on a quaint 

1 Memoirs of Libraries, etc., by Edward Edwards, 2 vols. 8°, Triibner & 
Co., London, 1859. Vol. i., 535-622 (and several times quoted or referred to 
elsewhere). 

2 Ackerman, K., The History of the Colleges of Winchester, Eton, and West- 
minster ; the Schools of Harrow, Eugby, etc., 48 plates, imp. 4°, London, 1816. 



MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND. 349 

shady street suggestive of Cambridge or Oxford. Their pre- 
vailing style is picturesque domestic Pointed of the Tudor 
period, showing its characteristic dark-red brickwork and light- 
colored stone quoins and window-cases. Pre-eminent, and of 
course ecclesiastical in design, is the chapel, a noble one, built 
of gray stone and resembling in general external effect King's 
College Chapel at Cambridge ; but it is plainer and shorter, 
for it is 175 feet long, and has only eight bays. Internally it 
shows, or showed, a low-pitched wooden roof supported by 
arched trusses instead of a superb vault, and too much incon- 
gruous work intruded in the last century. Any scholar of 
that time would have been smartly treated if he had blundered 
in Latin grammar as the officers then did about the native 
style of this noble collegiate monument. Similar bad design 
appeared in the hall, which is, or was, chiefly distinguished by 
size. Cloisters add variety to the buildings, but they are of 
minor interest. Large and pleasant rooms contain the valu- 
able library, and are fair examples of classic style modified. 
But of all which makes Eton a distinguished English monu- 
ment, nothing has surpassed the part played by the Eton boys 
of a dozen generations. 



MEDIEVAL ENGLAND: A KETKOSPECT. 

Mediaeval England, as shown by the works already described 
on these pages, is still represented by very numerous and strik- 
ing monuments. Notwithstanding the wear of time and weather, 
the wreck by wars and revolutions, the neglect or worse abuse 
in time of peace, and the inevitable changes wrought by an 
active, growing population, the chronicle in stone and brick re- 
mains distinct and full, and unsurpassed in interest. Ruined, 
altered, or carefully preserved, nearly all the structures de- 
scribed, and many more less prominent, are standing ; and in 
turning from them we may well look back on the chapters of 
the nation's history which they illustrate, and linger, at least 
briefly, in a retrospect of the England they vividly show as it was 
at the close of the Middle Ages in the reign of Henry VIII. 



350 MEDIEVAL ENGLAND. 

At the eve of the Reformation, England differed strangely 
in appearance and condition from the England of to-day. Even 
the people, although ancestors of the living, showed possibly a 
greater contrast, so dissimilar were they in thought, in dress, 
and manners. Yet the moulded, carved, or printed pages of 
her record give observation and imagination means to realize 
what that England was. 

Along the shores of the country the ports known to-day 
were resorts of commerce, but on a scale that would now seem 
insignificant; and the towns scattered through the country 
showed like small proportions. Castles at strategic points were 
truly strongholds kept prepared for use in war, and not as bar- 
racks, store-rooms, picnic grounds, or relics for the archaeolo- 
gist. Sea-shore and inland places were strengthened by them, 
and a cordon of them reached along the northern border and 
around the skirts of Wales. Some of the Norman keeps were 
not maintained, but there were few of the castles that were 
not in good order. Clustered by them, scattered through the 
land or gathered in the towns, were the homes of the people, 
quaint and usually small. Fens and forests covered many a 
mile of now smooth grass-land or carefully cultivated field. It 
was indeed in many ways still a new, simple country, where 
quiet life prevailed and few men travelled or thought often 
of far distant places. Modern wants and politics were little 
dreamed about, and already had the hearty although rude life 
of the commons, with the graces and the stories of the poets, 
made the country the now half mythic Merrie England. Prom- 
inent above others were royal personages and the nobles, bril- 
liant in costume as in rank, and in as marked a contrast with 
the commons. Still more numerous were the sober, varied, 
yet conspicuous dresses of the ecclesiastics and the monks. 
All the grades of rank were strongly marked, and by differ- 
ences in dress incomparably greater than at present. Feudal- 
ism, although established in the country through nearly five 
hundred years, had declined from its once great influence, yet 
still affected the relations of the population, and continued to 
give distinctive characteristics to the aspect of at least the 
rural districts. 



MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND. 351 

But no more notable contrast between the England of 
1530 and to-day was shown than in things often seen and in 
institutions connected with the service of the Church and its 
monastic establishments. In cathedrals and in scores of ab- 
batial and hundreds of minor churches stood the altars of the 
ancient faith, in every form, from the gorgeous masterpiece 
beside the bishop to the simple stone by the humble country 
priest. Shrines of the saints, superb with gold and gems, 
rich reliquaries, colored glass, and mural paintings, thoroughly 
expressive of the already venerable power still held to be the 
only true Church, the one guide to heaven, stood unbroken and 
magnificent, invested with their own peculiar meaning and the 
strength of associations with the beliefs of generations. 

No structures in town and country are more conspicuously 
the products of our times than were the monastic buildings 
peculiarly creations of the Middle Ages. In the larger towns, 
where the corporation hall, the station, or hotel now rivals the 
old Parish church in prominence, the priory or abbey was then 
the most notable structure ; and in the vales aside from noise 
of business there often were larger establishments of the Monas- 
tic Orders. Far more conspicuous than is now the great family 
seat, with its rich grounds, was the home of the monks ; for 
the seat is only a finer part of the prevalent cultivation : the 
monastery was much more. In a region where stretched wild 
districts or rudely tilled country, it was, in marked contrast, 
one of the gardens of the land. Fields with full crops, and 
pastures with large flocks and herds, gained from a wilderness 
by monkish labor, spread pleasantly around grouped buildings 
often extensive and stately, and always picturesque. Within 
their ample walls, along with the monks, were gathered pilgrims, 
travellers, the poor for aid, the sick for healing. There vows, 
the needs of strangers, calls for help to soul or body, were 
all answered. Church, inn, charitable institute, and hospital, 
not elsewhere found, were there. Five, ten, or even more 
generations of the monks had there chanted psalms and 
anthems in the choir, and gathered manuscripts, and saved 
them in the library, where also for three quarters of a cen- 
tury they had gathered the early products of the press, the 



352 MEDIAEVAL ENGLAND. 

first of which in Britain, 1 as in Italy, 2 appeared within 
monastic walls. 

In England, as on the Continent, the Age of the cathedral- 
builders — the most distinguished in the Middle Ages — extend- 
ing from the latter part of the eleventh through the fourteenth 
century, was characterized by a spirit as marked as any of a 
different sort dominant in our own times. Whatever may 
now be thought of the wisdom of their outlay, vast, especially 
if the resources of the country are considered, we may well 
pause in harsh judgment when we observe some of the heavier 
modern expenditures. Whether or not their devotion was un- 
mixed with worldly motives or ambition, or the policy of eccle- 
siastics, or local rivalry, it must have been directed by one grand 
idea, — the honor and glory of God's service, which claimed and 
received the noblest tribute possible. Their churches, superb 
with mediseval pomp to the eve of the Reformation, are still 
preserved in scarcely less beauty ; but the monasteries are 
fading from sight, and even almost from memory. 

The great change that came over Europe between 1520 and 
1550 swept through England ; and the Church, dominant since 
Christianity had been a power in the country, yielded to a 
changed faith which has since held the Cathedrals and Parish 
churches ; but a storm of ruin devastated the monastic institu- 
tions. Abbot, monk, and nun, who had been as familiar to the 
sight of the people as were the features of the land itself, all 
disappeared. Great monasteries, which had been the outposts 
and the bulwarks of Christianity and civilization in the wilder- 
ness, and their strongholds in the better land which they had 
done much to make, fell or bowed in the towns and quiet vales. 
We can recall their stateliness when held by Orders centuries 
old, all busy with their labors and their services, and then 
look on their mouldering ruins and realize as nowhere else 
the ancient England which in the reign of Henry VIII. passed 
utterly away. 

i Westminster (p. 243), 1477. 2 Subiaco, 1465. 



MODEEN ENGLAND. 



THE AGE OF ELIZABETH. 

AFTER the accession of Elizabeth (1558), the new era of 
modern life and history which had opened in England 
during the reign of Henry VIII. , as it had at the same time 
on the Continent, fairly began its growth, although this was 
not great until many years had passed, and even until the 
times of James I., her successor. 

The long period of border conflicts at the west and north 
had passed, as well as extensive civil commotions like the "Wars 
of the Roses ; and although England kept a hold on French 
territory until 1558, the effects of her wars there through cen- 
turies had, like most of her possessions there, become matters 
of a far receding past. Henry VIIL, in 1539-1540, had pro- 
vided against an invasion then expected by erecting the last old 
line of coast-defences ; 1 but these were on a much smaller scale 
than the corresponding works of the Romans and Normans. 
Foreign affairs, while delicate or serious, and requiring con- 
stant care, were not attended by commensurate wars. Yet, 
particularly in the grand providence of 1588 and the brave 
and triumphant conflict with Spain, England was growing 
important abroad, even as she hardly was when she held 
many a province of France. Internal peace and broadening 
prosperity (small though this would seem now) were prevail- 
ing. The sovereign was pre-eminent ; the great lords power- 
ful ; the gentry, if not rich, fairly established ; the mass of 
the people plain, sturdy, it may be rough, yet encouragingly 

1 These castles, as placed from east to west, were Tilbury, in Essex ; Deal, 
Sandown, and Walmer, in Kent; Winchelsea, in Sussex ; Calshot, Hurst, West 
Cowes, and Southsea, in Hampshire; Portland and Sandford, in Dorset; and 
Fowey, in Devon. 

23 



354 MODERN ENGLAND. 

thrifty. Comforts, as we know them, were scanty ; and lux- 
uries, not countless, confined to a few. There were strange 
contrasts between the gorgeous court dresses and the pomps of 
the nobles at home and some close surroundings ; for rich silks 
and velvets might brush the rush-covered floors, or in huge 
apartments, really magnificent, things that we think necessities 
would be lacking. 

But the distinction of the renowned queen's reign, certainly 
not in these minor affairs, was less in matters material which 
add to the chronicle formed by carved stone, than in what was 
done and was gained by great statesmen, by bold and far-sail- 
ing seamen, by men who were thinking and acting on new 
religious convictions, and by poets and authors making the 
garden of English literature blossom afresh and flourish as 
never before. 

Yet meanwhile there were rising some of the stateliest and 
most charming structures ever erected in England, of a kind 
intensely characteristic of her social organization, as they were 
of the change from mediaeval distraction, and life always on 
guard, to the new era that was beginning the peace and good 
order of prosperous modern times. These were the great man- 
sions. — the vast country-houses, possible only with great lords 
living in such a land and in such a new era, — which during the 
past three or four centuries have been as characteristic features 
of it as were the monasteries during the three preceding cen- 
turies. Indeed they have become even more peculiar to it, for 
while monasteries were common to all European countries, in 
none are, or were, similar residences so numerous and varied. 
Yet many as they have grown to be, — for they are found in 
almost every part of the land, — and large and magnificent as 
they often are, they are even more notable as sources of influ- 
ence, which although of a different sort from that of the 
cloisters, has been hardly inferior in strength. They have 
been, as a class or a rule, examples and seats of refinement 
both of manners and society, where many precious collections 
of works of art and literature have been preserved. 

When feudal life among the nobility and gentry became less 
warlike, or, so far as it was spent in England, altogether 



THE GREAT RESIDENCES. 355 

peaceful, most of the castles ceased to be used as residences, 
and new means and tastes, as well as new opportunities, made 
as great change in building as had occurred in the country's 
condition. The great hall, a part of every house of the higher 
class, ceased to be a gloomy although grand apartment high 
up in the keep, and was placed near the ground, was larger, 
and lighted by tall shafted windows. Here at first, as of old, 
the huge public room of the feudal establishment, it in time 
was used only for occasional gatherings, or as a way to the 
living-rooms farther within, and at length alone as a stately 
approach. These living rooms were by degrees made more 
numerous, commodious, and elegant, and picturesqueness in 
various forms was in almost every case given to all parts of 
the residence. The windows, many and large, looked out on 
gardens and lawns. The towers, once needed for strength 
and defence, and then badges of power, became in Elizabeth's 
time full of shaftings and glazing, and were a grand decora- 
tion. Indeed, until the latter half of the sixteenth century 
some of the latest forms of the Pointed style continued to be 
used with their peculiar native or national features, and then 
were superseded by the scarcely less English forms given the 
imported Renaissance. 

In turning attention to the great residences so peculiarly 
creations of modern English life, two noble seats, among a 
considerable number of remaining examples, transitional in 
date, style, and plan, are uncommonly attractive. 



THE GEEAT RESIDENCES, BEFORE 1600. 1 

Penshurst, Kent, said to have been founded before the Con- 
quest, and fortified in the reign of Richard II., was held by 
several knights or families, or was at times Crown property, 

1 See Dollman (and Jobbins), An Analysis of Ancient Domestic Archi- 
tecture, etc., 4°, 164 plates, 2 vols. London, 1861. — Hall, S. C, The Baronial 
Halls, etc., of England, 72 plates, 2 vols. 4°, London, 1858. — Kerr, R-, The 
Gentleman's House, etc., 8°, plates, 2d ed., London, 1865. — Nash, J., The Man- 
sions of England in the Olden Time, 4 vols. imp. folio, 100 plates ; text 8°, Lon- 
don, 1839-1849; (a re-issue in 4°, with small plates). — Ne ale, J. P., Views of 



356 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. 

until about the middle of the sixteenth century, when it was 
granted by Edward VI. to Sir William Sidney and his heirs. 
An imperishable distinction was given the ancient seat by his 
grandchildren, Sir Philip (1554-1586) and Mary, Countess of 
Pembroke. Well may Sir Philip have been regarded as " the 
Bayard of England, the mirror of knighthood, and the flower 
of chivalry ; " for his grace and nobleness gave the charms of 
romance to the picturesque and distinguished social life of 
which he was one of the great ornaments and exponents, and 
his Poems and " Defence of Poesy " helped to brighten the full 
morning which followed the long dawning of English litera- 
ture. In the next century he and the countess had worthy 
successors in Algernon Sidney and Lady Dorothy, who was 
Waller's beautiful Sacharissa. 

It is seven miles from Tunbridge Wells to Penshurst, by a 
very pleasant road abounding in old English scenery. Parts 
of the way are between green fields and hedges of holly or 
hawthorn ; parts are over high ground commanding noble and 
delightful views along the vale of the Medway — here a small 
stream hidden by its banks — and over the hills of Surrey. The 
village of Penshurst, built in a little valley, is made up of pict- 
uresque old houses on a quaint street, at the end of which 
an iron gate opens to the " Place," as the seat is called. Com- 
monly it is approached through the grounds attached to the 
church, an edifice in Perpendicular style, with a square tower 
that has a look of mouldering dignity. Near it and in the 
midst of an open lawn is the irregular, great house, long and 
not very high, evidently much repaired, and yet ancient in gen- 
eral effect. It is built chiefly of smoothed blocks of sandstone 
once pale brown, but now grown gray, a hoary gray in some 
places, with here and there stains like those from iron-rust. A 

the Seats of Noblemen and Gentlemen, 2 series, 11 vols. 792 plates, London, 
1818-1829. — Richardson, C, Studies from Old English Mansions, 4 vols. imp. 
folio, 1841-48. — Turner, T. H., Some Account of Domestic Architecture in 
England, 1066-1300, 8°, plates and cuts. J. H. Parker, Oxford, 1851. — Some 
Account, continued, 14th century, do., 1853, 15th century, 2 vols. 1859. — Vitrc- 
vius Britannicus, by Campbell, Gandon, Woolfe, and Richardson, 7 vols. imp. 
folio, 638 plates, London, 1715-1808. For accounts of paintings, etc., see Waagen, 
Dr., Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols. ; and his Galleries and Cabinets of 
Art, 1 vol. 8°, London, 1854-1857. 



penshurst; haddon hall. 357 

low park-wall, enclosing an area of turf, extends along one side 
and the front of the house, which is two stories high, except in 
a tower at the centre and in another at a corner, where there is 
a third story. As would be expected from the date of the work, 
the style is late Pointed, and, as often was the case in domes- 
tic buildings, bricks, now grown a dull dusky-red, were used 
for a portion of the simple but picturesque design. There is a 
courtyard reached through a large door, badly worn when the 
writer last saw it, and opposite to it another opening to the 
hall. On the outside this shows walls crowned by battlements 
and pierced by Pointed windows with heads filled by Geometri- 
cal tracery, of all of which Nash gives a good view. Internally 
the hall is 64 feet long and high, and 40 feet wide, and covered 
by a time and weather stained timber roof in the old English 
fashion. Not many years ago the state-rooms were comfort- 
less looking ; but they have been much improved, and the pict- 
uresqueness of their antique style has been renewed. One of 
the most attractive of them is the great Gallery with the pecu- 
liar form of a f? having windows at the upper side towards the 
church and at the right towards the park. On the wainscot 
are hung several good and interesting portraits, some of the 
numerous souvenirs of old days collected here in one of the 
most charming houses of its age in England. As Ben Jonson 
has told us, the simplicity of earlier dignity gives it a character, 
for as he says, — 

" Thou art not, Penshurst, built to envious show 
Of touch or marble; " 

yet, as Southey has added, — 

" Are days of old familiar to thy mind, 
O reader, . . . thou wilt tread 
As with a pilgrim's reverential thoughts 
The groves of Penshurst." 

Haddon Hall, 1 Derbyshire, is not only a romance grown 
into reality, but also an unrivalled monument of the England of 

1 See Rayner, S., History and Antiquities of Haddon Hall, 37 plates, 8 parts, 
atlas 4°, Derby, 1836-1837. Also described in the writer's " Lands of Scott," 
pp. 367-369, in the chapter on " Peveril of the Peak." 



358 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. 

the Tudors and earlier Stuarts. Some parts of it are said to 
be as early as the Saxon period ; but the chief features date be- 
tween the thirteenth century and the reign of Elizabeth. The 
ground on which it stands slopes gently to the river Wye, and 
all around it is the quiet but lovely setting of the genuine old 
English landscape. Gray, simple, and yet very picturesque, 
the embattled walls and towers of its immense irregular quad- 
rangle rise in a lordly style above the green fields and the fresh 
old trees of the ' peaceful vale. On the outside, the edifice is 
from 125 to 160 feet in width, and from 360 to 390 feet in 
length. There are two courts surrounded by the various parts 
of the quaint structure, and supplying light and access to each 
side of the hall that is placed between them. Although a 
great deal of the furniture has been removed and the house 
has been uninhabited for a long time, much of its old character 
is shown. The hall has its dais, minstrels' gallery, and pon- 
derous table, overspread by a rude, lofty timbered roof. Con- 
nected with the lower end of the apartment are the ample 
kitchens, larders, and other rooms, all of a semi-barbarous 
plainness, where the stores of provisions for a lavish hospitality 
were kept or prepared. At the upper end are steps that lead 
to the quaint wainscoted parlor and family dining-room (1545), 
from which shafted oriels give a view of the romantic garden. 
Beside these is the Gallery, one hundred and ten feet long, 
sixteen feet ten inches wide (exclusive of three oriels), and 
fifteen feet high, with an exterior, of stone, in the style of 
Henry VIII.'s time, or earlier, and an interior in that of 
Elizabeth. The wainscoting is of oak, now faded or worn, 
but elaborately carved and panelled, rivalling in richness a fan- 
tastically decorated ceiling covered with stucco-work arranged 
in a complicated net of ribs that form variously shaped divi- 
sions. At the left of the upper end of the Gallery are the 
state bed-chamber and other rooms, from the first one of which 
a door and outside stair lead to the garden and to Dorothy 
Vernon's walk. It was on the latter that this fascinating lady, 
heiress of Haddon, had a tite-a-tete with Sir John Manners, 
son of the Earl of Rutland, and by the door and stair that she 
eloped with him in 1567, they say, and thus transferred the 



SPEKE HALL. 359 

estate, long held by the Vernons, to the distinguished family 
which has since owned it, and deserves great praise for the 
admirable preservation of one of the most interesting historical 
monuments of England. 

While the Pointed style continued to be used in buildings 
of brick or stone where these materials could be obtained, at 
an age when transportation was difficult, another style as dis- 
tinctively native as the Tudor was used in Lancashire, and 
especially in Cheshire, of which the features were picturesquely 
arranged oak frames filled with shafted windows or plaster, as 
these were needed in the structure. Although seemingly of less 
strength, the latter materials have proved remarkably durable. 
Both styles, especially in the finish of interiors, blended with 
English Renaissance when that became the fashion, and the 
country-houses, partly wooden, which were usually set low and 
were full of windows, and often were placed in gardens or open 
land, were more notably proofs of the civil security than were 
the more solid buildings. Houses of both sorts, some of them 
very large, might be said to be of the picturesque or romantic 
school which preceded the stately one dominant at a later date ; 
yet all showed that they were planned with one thought, — for 
enjoyment of the comforts, pleasures, or the arts of peace as 
fully as those were then known. Of numerous remaining 
examples of timber and plaster houses there is an unusually 
fine one near the Mersey, a few miles east of Liverpool. 

Speke Hall, Lancashire, finished in 1589, though parts are 
considerably earlier, stands in a fiat country, but is environed 
by grounds admirably laid out as a setting to its picturesque 
form. A lawn with beds of flowers and scattered trees extends 
between groves and the grass-covered outlines of the long dis- 
used moat, above which rises the gabled house, a quadrangle 
with a small court, where there are two huge yew-trees. On the 
outer walls the framework is a dull black, but on the inner it is 
bright jet, as if newly painted. Contrasted with it is the pale 
cream-colored plaster forming the filling between the beams, and 
a local red sandstone used in the foundations, as well as another 
tint in the stone of a great entrance arch and of a bridge over 



360 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. 

the moat. On the roofs there are slates of irregular shape and 
so large and thick that they are really slabs of stone. Fifty 
years ago the Hall was a mere shooting-box, so much abused 
that potatoes grew in the Drawing-room ; now it is in admi- 
rable order, not a " show-place," but an exquisite home. On 
the south side of the courtyard, or that farthest from the main 
entrance, is a door opening to the Great Hall, a dimly lighted 
but charming room. Its high flat ceiling, crossed by beams, is 
of dark oak, and its wainscot, also high and of the same wood, 
is even darker. At one side, and towards a corner where there 
is a large shafted window looking on the court, is an enormous 
fireplace still retaining the antique seats along its sides ; but 
the broad chimney is closed, and a very large grate with a 
modern flue is placed for the fire. All the furniture is of the 
age or style of the apartment, and is quite as quaint. Not- 
able among it is a sideboard, elaborately carved, with a back 
covered by figures, showing the story of Esther. Everything, 
indeed, is picturesque, even to the window glass, which here, 
as elsewhere in the house, is set in diamond-shaped panes, 
and although plain, is relieved by arms in color in the upper 
days. 

No less picturesque, but lighter and richer, is the Drawing- 
room, finished with wainscot full of square panels and a broad, 
elaborately carved chimney-piece, all of dark oak, reaching to 
a flat ceiling covered with an intricate design in stucco nearly 
white, and divided into large square panels by great beam-like 
projections. While the windows of the house are mullioned in 
the old English style, most of the interior decoration is Renais- 
sance, showing the earlier English treatment. In nearly all 
the rooms the antique character has been preserved, and mod- 
ern refinement has made them exquisite. A parlor containing 
furniture in the style of Louis XV. and a more private room 
have recent papering of the so-called sesthetic sort ; but the 
effect throughout the house is like a revelation of a seat of the 
gentry in the times of Elizabeth, preserved and made even more 
charming by worthy successors. 

Knole House, near Seven-Oaks, Kent, is one of the largest 
existing mansions of the Elizabethan age, from which a great 



KNOLE HOUSE. 361 

deal of it dates, although externally the style is chiefly modified 
Tudor, and internally it is English Renaissance. Its gabled or 
embattled stone walls, gray and venerable, enclose an area of 
five acres which includes two main courts, five or six of smaller 
size, and buildings containing more than three hundred rooms. 
For an effect of picturcsqueness on a grand scale it is perhaps 
unsurpassed, and scarcely rivalled, by any other domestic 
structure of its antiquity in England. 

" Knole," says Neale, " has been a remarkable Mansion from 
the time of the Conquest." It had been held by many illustri- 
ous families when, in 1456, it was bought by the Archbishop 
of Canterbury, who rebuilt it and left it to be an official palace ; 
but it became Crown property near the middle of the next 
century. The illustrious titles of Cardinal Pole, of Warwick, 
Northumberland, and Leicester, were afterwards associated with 
it, until Queen Elizabeth, about 1566, granted it to Thomas 
Sackville, who became Earl of Dorset, by whose descendants 
it has since been held and admirably kept. Between 1603 
and 1608 the Earl constantly employed two hundred workmen 
on the edifice ; yet much required by its extent and nature has, 
from time to time, since been done. Still the work, as seen 
at present, was completed, substantially, in 1605, and, except 
repairs, nothing prominent is more modern. 

Near the Parish church — a long, low, and good building, 
in Perpendicular style — a gate opens to a pleasant avenue 
reaching into an extensive park. Descending between shaded 
banks, the path leads to an open, grassy, narrow valley, and 
thence to a hill covered with trees, beyond which is a lawn on 
elevated ground where the huge mansion stands. Its long 
front, with ten curved and stepped gables and two battlementcd 
towers that flank the entrance at the centre, is, like most of 
the other parts, constructed of small blocks of stone now grown 
a rusty, blackish gray, a coloring also given by age to the 
sloping red-tiled roofs. On nearer view the blocks of stone 
are seen to be often laid with large joints, in which small chips 
are set, like herring-bone work. 

At the centre of the edifice and at the chief entrance is the 
Great Hall, which shows what might be called the third degree 



362 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. 

in the development of this apartment, succeeding the halls in 
the keeps, and others like those at Penshurst and Haddon, 
two forms belonging to feudal life. This at Knole is of a 
kind built for stately effect, and is almost entirely in Renais- 
sance style. Only in large dimensions is it like the old native 
hall (74 feet 10 inches long, 27 feet wide, and 26 feet 8 inches 
high). From its floor of stone a wainscot with square panels 
rises to a third of the height of the walls, which above it are 
pierced by shafted windows filled with stained glass, or are 
plainly plastered, tinted a dull Indian red, and hung with armor 
and full-length portraits. A wooden arcade like shallow tracery 
forms a sort of cornice beneath a flat ceiling covered with ribs, 
so that they make a net of angular divisions, in which the 
ground has a lilac tint, while the ribs are white. Across the 
lower end of the apartment, and nearly as high, is an oak 
screen of a rich English Renaissance design, bearing heraldic 
devices in bright colors, but elsewhere painted a poor imitation 
of its own material. Behind it are doors to two courts and 
also to numerous rooms of service. At the upper end of the 
hall is the dais, and at the left side is a door to the main stair- 
case. In the latter the Renaissance style is more marked, and 
gives an appropriate introduction to remarkable apartments on 
the main floor. The first of these is the Ball-room, or White 
Gallery, as it is called, from its color. A crimson Drawing- 
room, with a white network ceiling, extends to the right and 
adjoins the Cartoon Gallery, one of the noblest and most 
picturesque rooms in the house. Its lofty wainscot is dark, 
and has superbly carved pilasters and square panels contrasted 
with a chimney-piece of alabaster reaching to a white ceiling 
of stucco, richly ornamented and marked by a wavy pattern. 
Light comes through tall shafted windows, the chief one of 
which is a broad bay where there are groups of statuary on 
the floor, and a Venus and a Dancing Faun in niches. Even 
this room is surpassed by one connected with it, a large 
Bedroom fitted up for James I. at a cost of .£12,000, as we 
are told. All the furniture and decorations, like the style of 
the apartment, still remain as they were in his time, including 
tapestry with which the walls are hung, bed coverings and 



KNOLE HOUSE. 363 

curtains of cloth of gold, now very faded, and the table, articles 
for the toilet, lustres for candles, and mirror-frames of silver 
richly worked. A superb chimney-piece reaches to the ceiling, 
which is white and covered by the usual panelling. Beyond 
the Ball-room and towards the gardens is the Tapestried-room, 
so called from its old hangings. Here there are picturesque 
bay-windows and a ribbed wooden ceiling, slightly sloped up 
to its centre, all in the Tudor style. Behind the tapestry, at 
one end, are two doors opening to a pew used by the family in 
the chapel, — which is not a remarkable one, it may be added. 
Next to the upper end of the chapel are two very quaint cham- 
bers, called Lady Betty Germaine's, with windows opening on 
a delightful garden, laid out with shaded walks and exquisite 
shrubbery, backed by dense masses of trees and surrounded 
by a high, old stone wall. Another room of a kind peculiar 
to the old mansions is the Brown Gallery, extending from 
this front to the main staircase. It has a plain white plas- 
tered ceiling, slightly coved, divided by oak mouldings, and 
solid panelling upon the walls, on which are hung many 
pictures. The collection of paintings distributed throughout 
the house is indeed of great interest and value, and includes 
many works by Holbein, Yandyck, Salvator Rosa, Titian, and 
Lely. 

On every side of the house stretches an extensive and 
charming park, abounding in quiet walks and open glades. 
Across it there is an avenue more than a hundred feet in 
width and a mile in length, lined by great oaks and beeches, 
beyond which lies wild woodland where the deer run in the 
shade. Through Hall and park the internal peace and wise 
established institutions kept by many generations have spread 
a suggestive quiet, well worth knowing in our bustling present. 
Like the constitution of the country, this grand house has been 
the work of ages, with their various requirements, and of them 
all it is a noble monument, still keeping fresh its antique 
charms, and yet delightfully habitable. England of the later 
Tudors and the earliest Stuart lingers, as if spellbound, with 
a grace and dignity which Time increases, in the picturesque 
apartments and the wide domain of Knole. 



364 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. 

In the latter part of the sixteenth century the Renaissance 
— that badge of modern Europe — had displaced the Pointed 
and native styles for domestic purposes, and was used exclu- 
sively in the design of exteriors as well as of interiors. Yet 
even then marked features of the old and long-established 
styles remained, clad in the new costume which was fashioned 
according to English taste, for while borrowed from Italy, it 
received characteristic native treatment as the same original 
did when used in France. There were towers, but they were 
pierced by very large windows, and instead of battlements 
they had decorated parapets, and the windows here, as in the 
walls, were often shafted. At the same time both towers and 
walls were finished with pilasters and cornices, the details 
of which were of Italian origin. Increased wealth and refine- 
ment and growing power at home and abroad helped to create 
and satisfy desires for increased grandeur ; and the homes of 
the ruling classes, royalty, nobility, and gentry, became sump- 
tuous to a degree not hitherto reached, so that the chief resi- 
dences were striking evidences of the character of the country 
in art, politics, and social organization. 

The glories of the great queen's reign, its stately higher 
life, its opening of the age of modern England, — brilliant as 
the sunrise of the brightest day, — give a magnificence of illus- 
tration of that time to these enormous houses, and make them 
as expressive as were the keeps or abbeys in their day, and 
certainly no less attractive. 

Although the form of Renaissance thus modelled and used 
was almost as distinctly English as was the Tudor Pointed, and 
although it was for many years a dominant style (yielding in 
time, of course, to another, as styles are apt to yield), and is 
associated with one of the grandest ages of England, it has 
not been revived to any extent like the earlier native styles. 
It therefore remains the comparatively unique expression of an 
exceptional period, and full of associations with the splendid 
and charming morning of modern English history. 

There is a grand example of the monumental old residences 
of the stately class found near Stamford. 

Burleigh House, Northamptonshire, is not only a noble 



BURLEIGH HOUSE. 365 

representative of the great ancient mansions of the country, 
but also a precious and imposing monument of the immense 
development of England in power at home, in influence abroad, 
and in arts and literature, that made the reign of Queen Eliza- 
beth illustrious. The builder of the house was William Cecil, 
Baron Burleigh, the first member of the council sworn in her 
reign, and for nearly half a century, until his death, the Sec- 
retary of State. His history, meanwhile, was that of Eng- 
land, whose affairs he directed with pre-eminent ability, 
integrity, and patriotism. He employed John Thorpe, or 
John of Padua, as architect, and between 1577 and 1585 
erected this house. 

For half a century the Church had nearly ceased to be the 
chief patron of the arts of building in England, and they were 
almost exclusively practised in the construction of mansions 
for royalty and the nobility. The remarkable disappearance 
of the earlier palaces for the former, that will be elsewhere 
noted, renders one of the best Elizabethan seats for the latter 
peculiarly interesting. Utter changes, not only from the feu- 
dal castle, but from residences like Penshurst, and still more 
from the magnificent retreats of abbots and their monks, are 
shown conspicuously in the immense and stately country-house, 
especially by this, fit, as it is, to stand as one of the most 
noble and expressive monuments of the long reign of internal 
peace that glorified and strengthened England. 

The House stands in a large park three quarters of a mile 
from Stamford, one of the neatest and prettiest of ancient 
English country towns, and in its way as monumental as the 
grand mansion to which it gives an appropriate introduction. 
It is by no means a dismal feudal village beside a lordly seat, 
such as may be seen here and there on the Continent, but a 
thrifty, pleasant place such as many generations of rural Eng- 
lish people would make. Along its streets, that wind over small 
hills, there are many neat old houses and modern ones in quaint 
old styles. A pale-buff or gray stone used in their construc- 
tion makes them more cheerful, and three prominent churches 
add suggestive dignity. St. Mary's stands foremost on rising 
ground at a turn of the main street, and presents a noble gray 



366 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. 

tower and spire in Early English ; St. Martin's also has a tower ; 
and the third church, placed in a burial-ground, has a good 
spire. Another indispensable part of a town in this country, 
even a very old one, is the inn, here the " George," which, 
although freshly painted a light color, is a bit of genuine Old 
England, with its sign extended quite across the street. A 
path to Burleigh House starts near it, and leads across open 
grass-ground in the park, and thence along a noble avenue 
of aged elms, beside which sheep or deer will probably be 
seen grazing. 

In a spacious open area at the end of the avenue rises the 
House, imposing from its size and a multitude of cupolas and 
turrets, and forming a quadrangle about two hundred feet long 
on each of its outer sides. It is built throughout of close- 
grained freestone, now grown gray, except where brownish 
stains appear upon the main front, and whitish on the side 
to the right. Long ago the quarries were worked out, and 
recently old neighboring milestones made of their products 
were used for repairs on the House, while iron tablets were 
placed beside the roads. Towers stand at the angles and along 
the fronts of the edifice, which in most of the other parts has 
three stories, marked on the exterior by lines of mouldings. 
Over the second story of the main front these have a curious 
drop of perhaps two feet from the central to the corner tower 
to make the lines continuous. It was apparently an original 
device, for the two towers are not upon a level, and the win- 
dows fit the slope. Inside the quadrangle there is a court, 110 
by 70 feet, showing a design more thoroughly Renaissance in 
character. Far less of the original finish appears through the 
interior, where an extensive suite of state apartments fills more 
than the chief story, most of which was remodelled in the last 
century, and now suggests the parts of Hampton Court deco- 
rated by Verrio, Laguerre, and Gibbons. On the ceilings there 
are highly colored frescos abounding in allegorical figures, and 
upon the walls are dark oak cornices, panels, or dados, and 
in some rooms damask hangings. Generally the cases of the 
doors and windows are of oak, on some of which, as well as 
some of the cornices, there is gilding. The style might be 



BURLEIGH HOUSE. 367 

called Early Georgian, one in noticeable contrast with the con- 
temporaneous style of Louis XV. in' France. The English is 
solid, angular, dark, and rich ; the French is light in form and 
color, and throughout is marked by scrolls. A pale, buff-gray 
stair of stone, well shown by Nash, is one of the few Eliza- 
bethan parts of the interior that is unchanged. Another is 
the Great Hall, one of the grandest rooms to be found in any 
private house. The stateliness of the great queen's reign has 
never left it, but seems to have been growing there in dignity 
and beauty while the years have passed ; and at the same time 
the apartment is as comfortable as it is huge and superb. At 
one end a very large shafted window gives a fine view of the 
park, and on one side a spacious oriel opens upon a garden. As 
the glass is plain, except where it is charged with armorial 
crests in colors, it does not interrupt the charming prospects. 
Around the walls is a lofty wainscot, fronted by detached 
large pillars with brown twisted shafts ; above is pale-grayish 
stone, the material also used for the enormous chimney-piece. 
The ceiling is of dark oak, shining as if freshly varnished, 
and contrasted with the subdued tone of the Turkey carpet. 
Overlooking all, and placed on the sideboard at the end of the 
room, is a portrait of the present Marquis of Exeter, the lord 
of his glorious ancestral Burleigh. 

Distributed throughout the apartments is a very large and 
interesting collection of paintings, in which Italian, Spanish, 
Flemish, English, and other artists are well represented. Carlo 
Dolci's " Christ blessing bread," the favorite work, is hung in 
the Jewel Closet, a small but astonishingly rich room, where 
the rosary of Mary Queen of Scots and a gold basin, said to 
have been used at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, are also 
kept. Besides pictures, the brie-d-brac in the various rooms is 
wonderfully fine and abundant. All these objects, together 
with the architectural designs, give the interior an effect of 
spaciousness, and yet snugness and comfort, combined with an 
old-time style of elegance and richness. At the same time 
it is gratifying to observe, since several of the old mansions 
have been destroyed by fires arising from new modes used for 
heating, that though all the rooms here have fireplaces, they 



368 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. 

are now warmed by hot water, — thus adding the important ele- 
ment of safety ; for the destruction of the House, in any way, 
would be more than a national misfortune. 

Theobalds, where the great statesman found some of his 
scanty recreation ; Buckhurst, in Sussex, designed by Thorpe ; 
Ingestrie ; royal Nonsuch ; all the ten palaces of Henry VIII., 
excepting Hampton Court; and many lesser mansions of the 
Tudor age, — have been destroyed; and if by the survival of 
the fittest, Lord Cecil's home is spared, then still more precious 
is stately Burleigh. 

The English Renaissance was given far greater prominence 
on the exterior of other palatial mansions, as at Wollaton Hall, 
the ancestral seat of the Willoughbys, in Nottinghamshire, 
designed by John of Padua and Robert Smithson, and built 
between 1580 and 1588. Its outer walls are covered with 
pilasters and entablatures in classic forms eccentrically treated ; 
yet even here, at the angles, are the Tudor towers clad in the 
new costume. At the centre of the quadrangle a huge donjon, 
in the same guise, rises high above all other parts, and the 
windows with their shafts and transoms are still almost Tudor. 
There is also, in the central tower, a hall, measuring seventy 
feet in length and height, covered by an open timber roof of the 
mediaeval English form, but finished with Renaissance details. 
Light comes very effectively through windows placed far up in 
the walls. Although size and magnificence are the chief char- 
acteristics of this immense room, it is extremely comfortable. 
Other parts of the house, as at Burleigh, show alterations made 
in the time of Laguerre, and his productions, as well as the dec- 
oration which usually accompanied them. Mr. Nash well says 
that " in grandeur and unity of design, though not in extent, 
this noble edifice, in respect of its external beauty, may be con- 
sidered the most striking of the numerous magnificent mansions 
of the Elizabethan era." 

Hardwicke Hall, 1 Derbyshire, another prominent work of 
this period, while magnificently illustrating it, is also a per- 

1 See Robinson, P. F., History of Hardwicke Hall, plates, atlas folio, London, 
1835 ; also Nash, Hall, Neale, etc. 




WOLLATON, PART OF THE bARDEN FRONT 



HARDWICKE HALL. 369 

sonal monument of one of its strong characters. Elizabeth 
of Hardwicke, four times married, had at last a widowhood 
of seventeen years. Her single object was the establishment of 
her children in splendid opulence ; and in this she was wonder- 
fully successful, for her six children, all by Sir William Caven- 
dish, attained high rank and fortune. William was the first 
Earl of Devonshire, ancestor of the Dukes of that title ; Charles 
was the father of the Duke of Newcastle ; from Frances de- 
scended the Duke of Kingston ; from Elizabeth came " that 
incomparable Lady Arabella" Stuart, related to the Crown; 
and Mary was the wife of the Earl of Shrewsbury. The 
family of De Hardwicke had held this estate more than two 
centuries, and had built and occupied a mansion in native style, 
now standing, although dilapidated, contrasted with the impos- 
ing Renaissance edifice near it begun by Elizabeth when Coun- 
tess of Shrewsbury, in 1590, and completed seven years later. 
It is oblong, and has on each side a very broad bay window and 
two towers, and on each end a single tower. These towers, 
like the walls, present a great expanse of windows, with mul- 
lions and transoms. A basement, two stories, and a fourth 
story in each tower, are marked by strong mouldings, and a 
mere suggestion of the ancient battlement is given by balus- 
trades, at prominent points of which are the initials of the 
Countess, E. S., in scroll-work. The chief entrance is through 
an arched gateway and a garden, which is bordered on three 
sides by a stone wall about eight feet in height, and on the 
fourth side by the main front of the Hall. While stateliness 
and regularity rather than picturesqueness characterize the ex- 
terior, the interior has the charm of a romance as well as of real 
history. Not only are the original architectural features care- 
fully preserved, but nearly all the furniture is antique, so that 
the home of the great countess seems unchanged, and the life 
of the reign of the Virgin Queen never to have left it. The 
entrance-hall, the height of the two lower stories, finished with 
a tall wainscot, a gallery for the minstrels, and tapestry upon 
the walls, is an admirable introduction to the state apartments 
on the third floor, reached by a broad quaint staircase, also 
lined with tapestry. First in order is the Drawing-room, 

24 



370 THE GREAT RESIDENCES. 

26 feet high, 65 feet long, and 31 feet wide, besides a bay-win- 
dow in a tower 18 feet deep and 21 feet broad, finished with 
oak wainscoting elaborately ornamented with carved panels and 
pilasters, now grown almost black with age. Above it is a 
frieze in stucco, eleven feet deep, covered with reliefs intended 
to show Venus and Cupid, forests, a hunting scene, and Diana 
with her nymphs, accompanied by nearly animals enough for 
Noah's ark, all colored as the artist thought they would be if 
alive. As is seldom the case in such a house, the ceiling is 
plain ; but the enormous chimney-piece has the usual display of 
pillars, scrolls, and heraldry, and, like the furniture, is quaint 
and rich. There is but one thing not Elizabethan ; on the 
floor, that was originally bare, is spread a carpet. Through 
the diamond-shaped panes of glass in the tall shafted windows 
a wide view of a lovely rural landscape is presented ; but within 
the walls the rude antique magnificence wrought by the example 
that the great queen set and by the imperfect taste in art of 
her time, seems to be secluded from the modern world in a 
domain of poetry and dreamy beauty. Its romance is height- 
ened by the story told of the next room, a small one in the 
same style, but much richer and with a panelled ceiling. Here 
the furniture and needlework of Mary Queen of Scots are kept 
just as she used them, — not, however, here, as has some- 
times been said, but in the older Hall, or elsewhere, for she 
died years before this room was finished. Still more imposing 
is the chief apartment, — one of those enormous galleries that 
delighted the age of Queen Elizabeth and James L, and that 
are found in nearly all the larger mansions erected in their 
time. The gallery at Hardwicke is 166 feet long and 22 feet 
5 inches wide, exclusive of three large bay-windows. Its 
quaintly panelled ceiling, tapestried walls hung with a great 
number of valuable family portraits, immense stone-shafted 
windows, huge decorated chimney-pieces, and antique furni- 
ture, grouped in such a grand room and as they were in the 
days of Elizabeth, form one of the most striking pictures of a 
domestic life then possible, and still preserved in England. 
Horace Walpole wrote that then " space and vastness seem 
to have made their whole ideas of grandeur," and that " a 




HARDWICKE HALL. PICTURE GALLERY. 



THE AGE OF JAMES I. 371 

want of taste predominates ; " but while Strawberry Hill exists 
to show his comprehension of old English architecture, and 
some modern prodigies arise, or better, while the Elizabethan 
age is studied and respected, English-speaking people will rejoice 
in the preservation of Hardwicke Hall. 



THE AGE OF JAMES I. 

James I., while learned, was not the ideal of a wise man, and 
while prominent among the rulers in his time, was not an im- 
personation of the spirit of his age. Yet his name designates 
the period when England, an insular, but already influential 
kingdom, began to develop into the greatest of modern colo- 
nizing powers. In 1609 the first representative of the East 
India Company arrived in the distant land destined to become 
a vast accession to an enormous empire she was to rule, and 
seven years later he was followed by an ambassador from 
James I. Many a strong, established power there, native and 
even Dutch, was to be met, and through extraordinary events 
to be, in time, overcome. While these beginnings were made 
in the far East, others were made in the West. Early in the 
reign of James, royal charters were given for colonies in Vir- 
ginia and New England, and in 1607 Jamestown in the former 
was begun. A year later Quebec was founded by the French, 
destined to be a century and a half afterwards the scene of a 
victory that gave England an immense domain on the new 
continent. In 1602, the year before James came to the throne, 
Gosnold had left Falmouth 1 and had made the first attempt to 
colonize New England. 2 During the next year, Pring from 
Milford Haven, and in 1605 Waymouth from the Thames, 3 
made more extended explorations on the coasts of the same 
region ; and in 1607 a settlement was attempted at the mouth 
of the Kennebec, 4 to be followed, five years before the death of 
James, by the successful planting at Plymouth (1620). 

Great lords, enterprising merchants, and bold sailors made 

these efforts, unconscious of, or faintly conceiving the far- 

i See Palfrey's History of N. E. (1865), i. 71. 2 Do., 73. » Do., 76. * Do., 83-84. 



372 THE AGE OP JAMES I. 

reaching empire they were then founding ; but it was the brave, 
earnest Puritan, humble and almost an outcast, whc was to 
rival them all. 

Amid the then much more engrossing and prominent politics 
both abroad and at home, attended by what, small as it looked 
at the time, was the beginning of England's astonishing change 
from a minor kingdom to imperial might and proportion such 
as the world has never known to be matched, — amid all the vast 
deal of record and of result, we yet find most prominent on the 
chronicle in stone of the England of that age the same class of 
monuments as was most notable in the time of Elizabeth. 

The Church was indeed very strong, but the period of its 
pre-eminence in the national arts, as well as in politics, had 
long passed. Lords temporal, and not the ecclesiastics, sup- 
ported the arts and were the constructors, as also they were 
the dominant powers. Accordingly, the great residences con- 
tinue to claim the attention. Peace at home was prolonged, 
and wealth still increasing, so that landed estates grew more 
valuable, and there was the old way of the lords and the com- 
mons living good neighbors together. Thus the great house 
was possible, significant, and more than an ornament. 

The English Renaissance, well established during the reign 
of Elizabeth — and as distinctly characteristic of the early 
manhood of modern England, so to express it, as were the 
spirit and history of the age itselt — continued, although 
modified, to be the prevalent style until the Civil War. 

In a charming country about an hour by rail north of 
London there is an extraordinary residence which shows this 
form of Renaissance. Audley End, 1 Essex, was not only the 
largest mansion erected in the Jacobean period, but also was 
apparently intended to be the grandest that had then been 
built in England. It stands on the estate of Walden Abbey, a 

1 See Lord Bratbrooke's History of Audley End and Saffron Walden, 
Essex. Engravings and cuts, Roy. 4°, 1836. — Winstanlet, H., Plans, Eleva- 
tions, and particular Prospects of Audley End. Ob. folio, 24 plates. This is one 
of the earliest and rarest works illustrating a great English residence, as well as 
one of the most expensive. The view here given (part of a plate ll£ by 20 
inches) is taken from the dedication copy to James II. which bears his arms, and 
belonged to him It is now owned by the writer. 



AUDLEY END. 373 

house of the Benedictines founded in 1136 and granted by 
Henry VIII. in 1537 to Sir Thomas Audley. His daughter's 
son was distinguished in the fight with the Spanish Armada 
and in other ways, and on the accession of King James, in 1603, 
was made Earl of Suffolk and Lord Treasurer. In the same 
year the Earl began this house, and probably superintended 
the work, assisted, it is thought, by John Thorpe and Bernard 
Jansen. Thirteen years afterwards the house was finished, at 
a cost of £190,000. There were two large quadrangles, of 
which only three fourths of the chief one remains. When the 
tenth and last Earl of Suffolk died, in 1745, the estate at length 
passed into the possession of Lord Braybrooke. "By the inju- 
dicious advice of Sir John Vanbrugh," the architect, three sides 
of the first quadrangle had already been destroyed, and in 
1750 the great gallery, 226 feet long, was also taken down ; 
yet the best part of the edifice was spared, and is now in admi- 
rable preservation and condition. 

Audley End is one of those peaceful, lovely, and secluded 
old-world places found only in rural England. A well-shaded 
and extremely pretty road leads about a mile from a station on 
the Great Eastern line to the house, which from the first to 
the latest view is charming. Beyond a sleepy little river lies 
a broad meadowy tract studded with large scattered maples, 
oaks, elms, and horse-chestnuts, and almost surrounded by a 
background of park like a forest. At some distance on one 
side are picturesque old stables of brick and stone, liberally 
supplied with gables, and near the centre of the view is the 
great house itself, built of smoothed yellow-buff stone, well filled 
with many wide, tall, shafted windows, and crowned by quaint 
cupolas with curved roofs of green-tinted copper. Much of the 
exterior masonry is soon found to have been renewed, and now 
looks fresh ; but where its old surfaces remain they have grown 
gray. A porch with worn and faded marble pillars covers 
the main entrance. This opens to the Great Hall, 1 a grand 
oblong apartment with a floor of black and white marbles, a 
flat ceiling with a ground of white crossed by oak beams, and 

1 The Hall is 90 by 27 feet, and 29 feet high ; the Gallery was 226 feet long ; 
and the Saloon is 60 by 27 i feet and 20| feet high (Hall). 



374 THE AGE OF JAMES I. 

a high wainscot and huge screen of the same wood, not very- 
dark in color, and richly carved. A noble staircase leads to 
the Saloon, one of the most elaborate and striking rooms of its 
date in England. On the. walls is a superb wainscot, twelve 
feet in height, with a rich cornice, panelled base, pilasters, and 
large arched openings filled with full-length portraits. All the 
woodwork is painted a slightly grayish white relieved by gild- 
ing, and there is a similar tint, with the addition of a little 
blue, on a magnificent and lofty chimney-piece. Above the 
wainscot the walls are also white, as is the ceiling, which is 
covered by an unusual design of squares with deep and richly 
wrought pendants at the angles, and on other parts a profusion 
of fanciful ornament in stucco. Only on the great scale of 
these apartments can the stately picturesqueness of their style 
have full effect, as it does ; and their lightness adds to their 
cheerfulness without impairing their antique character. In the 
Drawing-room, where the design is less striking, there is a simi- 
lar coloring, except upon the walls, which are covered with large 
figured red damask. Several other rooms show the same 
general features, varied by emblazoned arms upon the chimney- 
pieces, or uncolored oak used for them, or by various minor 
details. There are two Libraries in Jacobean style, with 
white and gilt finish and open shelves containing a well-kept 
and noble collection of books, among which English history is 
strongly represented. The one poor apartment is the chapel, 
in a pseudo Pointed style, combined with what might be called 
modern finish, which is used elsewhere appropriately enough, 
chiefly in the Billiard-room and other parts for common use in 
the basement. 

Some of the main features of the house show the last traces 
of the mediaeval forms. Slight suggestions of the earlier towers, 
once the most important objects in the seat of a lord, are given 
by square cupolas at the angles, and the great hall appears in 
its latest use as a stately vestibule, with a hint of the old national 
timber roof conveyed by beams across its flat Renaissance ceil- 
ing. Plainness characterizes the exterior, and effect is given by 
disposition of the parts, while decoration is chiefly shown on the 
interior, — a wise arrangement in the English climate. Modern 



HOLLAND HOUSE; HATFIELD. 375 

life has made the chief apartments light and comfortable, while 
they still retain their antique style and stately picturesqueness. 
If Sir Thomas Audley was an incarnation of the greedy plun- 
derers of the Church in Henry VIII.'s time, and this house in 
some degree was a memorial of his success, its near approach 
to ruin only a century after its erection was suggestive of the 
wear of an ill-gotten wealth. But the complete and costly 
restoration or repair by the family now worthily holding it 
preserves for the country a grand monument of English art at 
the beginning of the sixteenth century, a home of antique beauty 
that we may hope will long be held by the noble owners. The 
writer certainly could not soon forget the old-world charms, 
bright with soft sunshine, which he has found in the park and 
superb old rooms of Audley End. 

Within the first dozen years of the seventeenth century 
two other famous mansions were built in English Renaissance, 
Holland House, Kensington, and Hatfield, Herts, about twenty 
miles northerly from London. Both of these edifices, con- 
structed of brick 'and stone, are noble examples of the do- 
mestic architecture prevalent in the reign of James I., and 
numerous cuts or plates, as well as ample text, relating to 
them can be found in general works less difficult to obtain 
than some books on single structures mentioned in these 
pages. Both houses have always had great social distinction. 
Holland House? once a country-seat, but of late surrounded by 
the surging tide of population London has been spreading far 
and wide, is notably associated with Addison, who, by marriage 
with the Countess of Warwick, came to occupy it in 1716, and 
died near the centre of the building in 1719. Henry Fox, after- 
wards Baron Holland, lived here for many years following 1746, 
as also have several of his descendants. Among the remarkable 
apartments are the Library, or Long Gallery (102 by VJ\ feet) 
and the " Gilt Room," an unusually rich example of Jacobean 
decoration. Hatfield? designed by John Thorpe and built 
between 1605 and 1611, was erected by Robert, first Earl of 

1 See The History of Holland House, by the Princess Marie Liechtenstein, 
2 vols. 4°. — Also, Hall (II.), Neale (X.). 

2 See Hall (I.) ; Nash (III.) ; Robinson's Vitruvius, imp. folio, London. 



376 THE AGE OP JAMES I. 

Salisbury, youngest son of the great William, Lord Treasurer, 
whose seat, Burleigh, has been described on pages 365-368. 
The house, measuring 300 by 100 feet, has a very picturesque 
although not elaborately ornamented exterior, and internally 
is both convenient and sumptuous. King James's Room and 
the Gallery (160 by 20) are superbly decorated by the ex- 
uberant fancy of the mature English Renaissance and the 
wealth and taste of recent times, solid, brilliant, and enduring, 
like the lords who have continuously held Hatfield, and like 
them visibly connecting the times of Elizabeth with those of 
Victoria, and making both periods seem, as they are, living 
realities in the history of England. 

Aston Hall, 1 Warwickshire, two miles from Birmingham, 
was begun in 1618 (two years after Audley End was finished) 
and completed by 1635. A baronial mansion had for centuries 
occupied the site when Sir Thomas Holte, the sheriff of the 
county, and " emphatically a good man and a loyal subject," 
laid out the grounds and built the house. His family retained 
the estate until the latter part of the last century, completing 
a period of nearly four hundred years of possession. Sub- 
sequently James Watt, son of the great inventor, leased 
and occupied it. In 1864 the Hall with forty-three acres of 
the grounds that had not yet been used for building were 
saved from further encroachments of the suburbs and were 
bought by the Corporation of Birmingham, aided by <£ 16, 000 
received from private sources, and were made a public park 
and museum. 

The Hall stands on a low broad hill, around the slopes of 
which are pleasant open grounds, including a fine lawn and 
garden at the front. Important changes in planning great 
houses are shown, indicating equally great changes in the con- 
dition of the country and in domestic life. The quadrangular 
form, with a central court used for the edifices hitherto built 
and described, had disappeared, and the ground shape was that 
of a large E •> thought by some to suggest Queen Elizabeth, in 
whose reign it was adopted. This shape was common in many 

1 See Davidson, A., History of the Holtes of Aston, and Description of Aston 
Hall. Plates, folio. Birmingham, 1854. 



ASTON HALL. 377 

larger and smaller mansions, of which Aston is a fine example. 
Although there is a large hall, 1 it is only a stately vestibule, 
here placed along the inner side of the E , or the main front, 
and entered from a porch forming the projecting part. At the 
inner angles are staircases, in the arms are large rooms ; and 
minor rooms, en suite, here modernized, fill the outer side, or 
garden front. Less change has been made at Aston in the 
second story, where the body of the E is occupied by the Great 
Gallery, a noble room retaining its antique style that is ex- 
tremely picturesque, even if of questionable excellence. A dark 
oak wainscot, reaching to a very rich white stucco ceiling, is 
pierced by shafted windows towards the garden and varied by 
an enormous white stone chimney-piece, on which are raised 
panels of black marble ; but ordinary pictures hung upon the 
walls and a crowd of objects that belong to the incongruous 
museum injure the effect. The Drawing-room, or Queen's 
Room, has windows with mullions and transoms at one end 
towards the grounds, and a similar large window overlooking 
the area in front. Around its sides is a wainscot of imitation 
oak, with large panels that have faded dark red grounds, rising 
to a deep white frieze of stone in which are cut standing figures 
showing military costumes from the Roman period to that of 
Elizabeth. As usual, the chimney-piece is very tall and rich, 
and here is made of white stone carved with many ornamental 
details, among which are the arms of the Holtes and their con- 
nections. The floor, like nearly all the floors in the house, is of 
plain boards, and is now dirty. While a valuable exhibition has 
been opened daily to- the public, and the house of one of the 
chief ancient families of the town is shown, with its important 
illustration of the art and life of England in the seventeenth 
century, the charm of an occupied and well-kept home is lost, 
and the old rooms undergo a wear that must in no long 
time have a most serious result. They are, indeed, already 
injured and dirty, and the air is apt to be bad. A compari- 
son of their condition with that of the HQtel de Cluny is not 

1 The dimensions of the Hall are 47 by 24 feet, of the Gallery 136 by 18 (and 
16 feet high), and of the Drawing-room 39 by 23 feet. The number of rooms 
shown is twenty -four. 



378 .ENGLAND SINCE 1640. 

favorable to Aston. The grounds, that can be continually reno- 
vated, are not injured, and supply a delightful and beneficent 
retreat for thousands from the smoke and crowded streets of 
Birmingham. 



ENGLAND SINCE 1640. 

The policy pursued by Charles I. in government, and the 
growth of Puritanism in religion, resulted in a decade of 
changes as great as any ever known in England, both in 
immediate and remote consequences, and an era as remark- 
able in its way as were the Conquest, the Wars of the Roses, 
or the Reformation. Marked as it was, it, from its nature, 
was very unfavorable to the erection of monumental works of 
art. Its creations were political and social ; in art work almost 
ceased, while instead of this, destruction for years prevailed. 

At the outbreak of the Civil War, in 1642, England, although 
not much changed in some ways since the Reformation, a cent- 
ury earlier, was in others very different, and hardly less in 
contrast with our own times. Remote as that period now 
seems, the country then had an even older look than at pres- 
ent. If the Roman pavements and most of the lesser objects 
now known lay buried or unheeded, the great fortifications 
and the immense northern Wall were far less injured. Saxon 
works were scarcely fewer than the Roman, and the Norman 
were more numerous. Cathedrals and Parish churches, strong, 
imposing, and unrestored, wore the full mantle of gray anti- 
quity. Abbeys were disappearing, but their remains were 
larger than at present. Some of the keeps and castles were 
ruinous, but many more than at present were in repair. Few 
were indefensible, and few were not put to hard use when the 
great struggle came between the king and parliament ; and 
although noble churches were made stables, the enormous 
waste and wreck of war swept with severer fury over the 
embattled seats of lords and gentlemen, and left many of 
the grandest or most curious edifices in final ruin. At the 
same time most of the great mansions, quite unsuited for 



ENGLAND SINCE 1640. 379 

defence, were comparatively unharmed, and throughout the 
country still less disturbed stood thousands of buildings of a 
class not yet described, but mentioned later in these pages. 
The homes of the common people, if of humble rank as 
monuments, stood through the turmoil as they had stood 
through long years of uneventful peace. Great numbers of 
them, then old and quaint, have been, in the changes brought 
by time, replaced by others ; and yet many last to our days to 
show the simplicity or homely comfort, often clothed in quaint- 
ness or picturesqueness, that surrounded the mass of the inhab- 
itants, at least in country towns and rural districts. Though 
when judged by modern wants, the houses of the people lacked 
a great deal, they would probably compare well with those for 
the same classes at the same time on the Continent ; and the 
dreary rows or miles of dingy dwellings found in modern 
manufacturing towns had not yet risen, — perhaps to show that 
the England of the Stuarts had fewer cheerless tenements than 
the England of the nineteenth century. Roads were fewer and 
far poorer ; uncultivated tracts much larger and more frequent ; 
towns, if then almost as numerous, were often too small to 
suggest their present size. Commerce and manufactures ex- 
isted, but, especially the latter, on a small scale. Busy enter- 
prise to some degree was active in the seaports, germs of 
colonies were planted ; yet the immense industrial activity and 
wealth of the nation was still passing through a period of child- 
hood. Population, except at a few points, was comparatively 
small and scattered, and internal communication so infrequent 
or imperfect that most of the communities or districts were as 
if isolated. It was indeed still the England of the early ages 
and the early poets, rural and partly feudal, changed by the 
Reformation, and bounded by a few commercial ports. It was 
plain, simple, pastoral, and agricultural, with here and there 
the lordly country-house set in its park and gardens, making, 
throughout the land, local centres with such refinements as the 
times afforded, and exerting no slight influence. 

The Civil War was fought and ended, leaving numerous evi- 
dences of its passage, now seen chiefly in the castles, now felt 
in the thoughts and institutions of the people. Violent changes 



380 ENGLAND SINCE 1640. 

of ancient usages occurred. " The government," says Lord 
Macaulay (Hist. Eng. ch. I.), " though in form a republic, was 
in truth a despotism, moderated only by the wisdom, the sobri- 
ety, and the magnanimity of the despot." Art was not favored, 
and the exigencies of the times would hardly have permitted 
its practice. The Restoration, with intense reaction in all 
things, came, and the subsequent period was marked by monu- 
ments still to be seen in imposing forms, the most important 
of which are in London. Native English styles and the Renais- 
sance of the Tudor and earlier Stuart times were replaced by 
designs with classic forms or details, a taste for which was 
simultaneously so marked in Italy, Spain, and France. Sir 
Christopher Wren, one of the greatest of English architects, 
gave his important influence and example in favor of the for- 
eign style, and recommended it by his masterly treatment. 
Although the advent of this style in England occurred when 
the country, or the king, became in an unusual degree subject 
to France, the use of the style is hardly more than fancifully 
a suggestion of foreign influence. 

The Revolution of 1688, like Puritanism, produced immense 
effect upon the country, but also left its chief mark on the 
institutions, politics, and character of the people ; and the 
reign of William III., while its most prominent results were 
similar, left its chief existing memorials at Kensington and 
Hampton Court, which will be described hereafter along with 
the palaces. In his reign and in that of Queen Anne, Eng- 
land took a very important part in European history, which 
will be mentioned in a description of its great monument at 
Blenheim. 

The chief monuments of the history of the country for 
more than a century following the Revolution were still the 
great mansions of the higher classes of society ; for they were 
then the dominant power, as royalty and the ancient Church 
had formerly been, and naturally they have left the most con- 
spicuous memorials. It was the age of great governing fami- 
lies, stronger even than the old nobles, and in the main more 
beneficent. They had practically succeeded to much of the 
old royal power, and theirs may be called the patrician age, 



THE PATRICIAN PALACES. 381 

marked by some grave errors, yet distinguished for great 
advancement and glory for England, chiefly under their rule 
made Imperial. Their memorials in stone are embodied, not 
inappropriately, in a style borrowed from the dominant empire 
of the classic world, and we may properly call them — 



THE PATKICIAN PALACES. 

Chatsworth, Derbyshire, one of the earliest and most mag- 
nificent examples of these residences, was built, between 1687 
and 1706, by the first Duke of Devonshire to replace an old 
edifice in which Mary Queen of Scots was long confined, and 
which was unsuccessfully besieged in 1645 by forces of the 
parliament. The main structure is a quadrangle a hundred 
feet long on each side, with a basement supporting two stories 
that are faced with Ionic pilasters. A buff, water-marked sand- 
stone, smooth and durable, and with few weather-stains, is used 
for the masonry, the rich effect of which is increased by bright 
gilding on the window-sashes in the chief, or southern, front. 
During recent years a large and handsome wing has been 
added. The interior is somewhat varied in style, classic pre- 
vailing in the numerous state apartments, and the Vanbrugh 
variety distinguishing the chapel, but offset by an altar-piece 
of Derbyshire alabaster and marbles that would be superb even 
in Spain. Some of the rooms are finished in reddish oak that 
has grown dark, and is overlaid with carved foliage and other 
elaborate decoration in pale boxwood, — a favorite style, for 
many years used also at Burleigh, Hampton Court Palace, and 
other great residences. In contrast, the sculpture gallery, a 
long, handsome hall, is in what might be called modern style, 
with drab or olive-brown walls, against which the abundant 
and finely mounted statuary is admirably shown. 

The impression of elegance, comfort, and magnificence 
combined in this seat which was given the writer when 
the old world was a novelty to him, was not diminished, he 
found, in another visit made after he had seen many splendid 
palaces. 



382 THE PATRICIAN PALACES. 

All the glories of the rich interior are, however, rivalled by 
the gardens, which have few equals in the world, and show 
French and Italian, as well as English, styles in exuberant 
elaboration. An immense conservatory, numerous greenhouses, 
surprising waterworks, and the great " Emperor " fountain add 
to the variety. During the winter the cold here is intense, and 
more than sixty fires, burning above three hundred tons of coal 
each year, and seven miles of pipe for carrying heat, are used 
beneath the glass in the grounds. An ideal of a beautiful and 
gorgeous country-house, such as is possible only in England, is, 
indeed, admirably shown at Ducal Chatsworth. 

"William III. did much to prepare the way for the events 
that caused the erection of one of the most monumental of all 
English mansions, in which the new style of foreign origin was 
used on the memorial of the victory of England, and of Europe, 
over France, and of the renewed importance, and, indeed, the 
pre-eminence of England in the civilized world. 

Blenheim, 1 eight miles north of Oxford, was founded by 
Queen Anne in 1705, in the fourth year of her reign, as an 
inscription (Neale, iii.) on a Column in the park, said to have 
been written by Lord Bolingbroke, informs us, to be, — 

" A Monument designed to perpetuate the Memory of the 

Signal Victory 

Obtained over the French and Bavarians, 

Near the village of Blenheim, 

On the banks of the Danube, 

By John Duke of Marlborough, 

The Hero not only of his Nation, but of his Age ; 

Whose Glory was equal in the Council and in the Field . . . 

Who by military Knowledge, and irresistible Valour, 

In a long Series of uninterrupted Triumphs 

Broke the Power of France," 

" Asserted, and Confirmed the Liberties of Europe." 

The Revolution of 1688 and the accession of William III. 
had confirmed the constitutional rights and freedom of the 

1 See Radcltffe, C. W., Views of, imp. folio, Oxford, 1842. (The writer's 
copy is from the library at Blenheim, where it belonged until 1882.) — Gem- 



BLENHEIM. 383 

country, and had ended the discreditable and dangerous sub- 
serviency of the Stuarts to the Grand Monarch, whose ambition 
sought to reduce Europe to his will, in some degree at least, 
as he had reduced France. The sovereign of England not 
only ceased to be his dependant, but became his antagonist. 
William found a Lieutenant-General, Baron John Churchill, 
who had risen by marked ability, and advanced him ■ in the 
public service. In 1701 the king formed what was called the 
" Grand Alliance " of the German Empire, Austria, the United 
Provinces, and England to oppose the designs of France. At 
his death in the next year, Queen Anne, his successor, realized 
the importance of his policy and plans, and followed them. 
While France had steadily been growing to predominance in 
Europe none of her opponents singly could arrest her prog- 
ress. She had practical control of Spain, and added the 
resources of a great part of the empire of Charles V. to her 
own. England had been made subservient, Germany was 
disunited, " the imperial eagle," wrote Lord Bolingbroke, 
" was not only fallen, b,ut her wings were clipped," and Hol- 
land, the most steadfast adversary of France, fought like an 
heroic dwarf against a giant, but she might be like another 
David from whom stones were snatched. Absolutism and the 
rule of the Inquisition then impended over Europe with the 
possibilities that might be consequent. The freedom of the na- 
tions, for which the Alliance stood, demanded not the impos- 
sible, a perfect man, but one in whom consummate powers 
of statesmanship and military genius were combined. Some 
serious charges could be made against the character of Church- 
ill ; but he had phenomenal abilities, that he could use, and did 
use, with immense effect for the salvation of all Europe. Queen 
Anne promptly placed him in command; and thus gave the 
Alliance what was far more than the gain of many armies, for 

maeum Antiquarum Delectus, etc. (the Marlborough Gems), 100 plates by Bar- 
tolozzi, 2 vols, folio, 1781 (also 1845). The original ed. has sold at from £70 to 
£100, complete. The collection was sold in June, 1875, for £35,750. — There 
are early catalogues of the library (1728, etc.), but the one found with the least 
difficulty is Bibliotheca Sunderlandiana, Sale Cat., 5 parts, and Sup., Dec, 1881, 
to June, 1883, 8°, London. The amount of the sales was £56,581,6. — See also, 
Coxe, W. (Archd.), Memoirs of John, Duke of M., etc., 3 vols. 4°, London, 1818-19. 



38-4 THE PATRICIAN PALACES. 

she " gave them Marlborough " as their captain-general. Only 
he could reconcile and join the inharmonious forces, only he 
could plan and execute with them the marvellous campaign of 
1704, when, August 13th, he attacked at disadvantage and then 
utterly defeated the French veterans near Blenheim in a battle 
that " at once destroyed," wrote Alison, " the vast fabric of 
power which it had taken Louis XIV., aided by the talents of 
Turenne and the genius of Vauban, so long to construct." It 
shaped the course of the history of civilization. 

The country resolved to build a fitting monument " Of Marl- 
borough's Glory, and of Britain's Gratitude." The royal Manor 
of Woodstock was granted. It had been the site of a Roman 
villa, a home of King Alfred, and through centuries a hunting- 
seat of the royal family and court. A Saxon parliament had 
met there ; the Fair Rosamond had hidden in its bowers ; 
Elizabeth had been confined by Mary in its palace ; and the 
Civil "War had left its mark on the domain. Associations 
with the literature as well as history of the country gathered 
around it. Alfred the Great had the/e translated Boethius ; 
the old ballads told the tale of Rosamond ; Elizabeth wrote 
verses there in 1555 ; and some events in 1649 supplied the 
subject of the entertaining " Good Devil of Woodstock," that Sir 
Walter Scott developed in his charming novel, " Woodstock." * 
The ancient palace, after it had been much injured, was taken 
down in the earlier part of the last century. The grant of the 
manor to the Duke of Marlborough and his heirs was confirmed 
by parliament in 1705, and half a million pounds were voted 
for the erection of the great memorial palace. Sir John Van- 
brugh, a dramatist and architect who had just built Castle 
Howard, the superb seat of the Earl of Carlisle and still one of 
the famous edifices of Yorkshire, made the designs, that were 
completely executed in ten years. The wealth and good taste 
of the Duke and his successors, and the many testimonials to 
his services, magnificently furnished the immense and splendid 
structure. Its Great Court, covering about three acres, has on 
each side a quadrangle, one for the offices and kitchen, and the 
other for the stables, connected by a double colonnade with 
1 See the writer's " Lands of Scott," chapter xlii., " Woodstock." 



BLENHEIM. 385 

almost a hundred pillars. At the upper end is the vast and 
imposing house itself. The whole length of this group is 
850 feet, and the depth is 600 feet. Stateliness with the Palla- 
dian regularity and balance is the chief effect, that far surpasses 
in palatial character all residences of the English sovereigns 
except the great example of the native Pointed style at Wind- 
sor. Some persons think that the design is heavy ; but it has 
great variety, and groups finely in both near and distant views. 
" The plan," says Mr. Kerr, " makes comfort and convenience 
subordinate to pictorial magnificence ; " but Blenheim, it should 
be remembered, is a monument as well as an enormous country- 
seat. Its exterior is built wholly of hewn stone that has grown 
yellowish or tawny brown or flecked with black lichens. Stone 
is also used in the Great Hall, one worthy of the edifice, built 
of a white variety relieved by pale buff. A tour through the 
State apartments — for a walk through them is a tour — leads 
first to the Saloon, a very large and lofty room with a base 
and window-cases of marble, and a coved ceiling, that, like the 
walls, is decorated with elaborate frescos by Laguerre. On 
each side of it, en suite, are three other rooms. Those to the 
right, in white and gold, have Flemish tapestries upon the walls 
that represent the great duke's battles, and all the windows on 
this side are towards a wide and beautiful lawn. At the end, 
and at right angles, is the Grand Gallery, that for a long period 
held the famous library of 17,000 volumes collected by the third 
Earl of Sunderland, which were dispersed in 1882-83. The 
apartment is 183 feet long, and has five divisions, each with 
three windows set between Doric pilasters of white marble. 
The much-ornamented stucco ceiling is either white or has 
pale neutral tints, as also have the elaborately carved cases for 
the books. A corridor from the Great Hall leads to the chief 
entrance, an imposing classic doorway built of variously colored 
polished marbles. On the same side of the palace is the chapel, 
large enough for the many persons, guests or household, by 
whom it would at times be occupied. The style is semi-classic. 
There is an elaborate flat stucco ceiling with white or neutral 
tints, and on the sides are imitation marbles. Handsome seats 
of oak, and a richly carved alabaster pulpit inlaid with vitreous 

25 



386 THE PATRICIAN PALACES. 

mosaics, are of recent date. By far the most imposing object is, 
however, the gigantic monument, executed by Rysbrach, in mem- 
ory of the great duke, who died in 1722, at the age of seventy-two, 
— a general who planned and fought many difficult campaigns, 
and yet, says Prof. Creasy, " who never fought a battle that he 
did not win, and never besieged a place that he did not take." 

On the opposite, or eastern, side of the palace are apart- 
ments with ceilings of white and gold, walls covered with green 
or crimson, small, elegant chimney-pieces of white marble, and 
windows opening on the beautiful lawn and gardens. In this 
suite are hung several very valuable paintings. The Cabinet, 
a corner room, contains a fine Madonna by Carlo Dolci and 
several works by Rubens, one of which was presented to the 
duke by the city of Antwerp. In the next room is perhaps the 
best Raphael in England, a Madonna and Child enthroned be- 
tween two Saints ; it was brought from Perugia in 1768. A 
Fornarina and a Holy Family attributed to him, four Canalettis, 
and two fine Titians are also here. The Vandycks are fine, and 
include a large portrait of Charles I. on horseback. 

The gardens, covering 300 acres, are as wonderful as is the 
house; and the great park, eight times as large, almost sur- 
passes them in interest. Not only does the scenery of its 
forests, glades, and lawns abound in sylvan beauty, but many 
of the trees are still survivors of the periods of the Tudor, 
York, or even the Lancastrian sovereigns. They stand as 
mute witnesses of the conservative endurance of old England. 
They alone of living things bore their part in the pageantry of 
royal hunts in centuries long past, and Englishmen walked in 
their shade when the New World was still unknown to Europe. 
The enormous oaks, gnarled, bowed, and wreathed with aged but 
luxuriant ivy, worn and shattered by the storms of many hun- 
dred years, are yet green, strong, and noble. Dense growths of 
large ferns spread gracefully beneath them, and the deer and 
sheep and cattle, thousands of them, stray and feed among the 
thickets or along the winding grassy glades. 

Houghton Hall, 1 Norfolk, also has distinguished personal 
and historical associations connected with its erection. It was 

1 See Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. iii. 



HOUGHTON HALL ; HOLKHAM. 387 

built by one who has been called the first peace prime minister 
of England, who has been judged with severity for some charac- 
teristics, and who has been credited with a successful policy of 
trying to avoid the hitherto costly warfare in which the country 
often was engaged, and by pacific means to develop prosperity. 
Sir Robert Walpole's wealth and power for many years in the 
reign of George I. were great, and in 1722 he began this splen- 
did seat, which was finished in 1735. The architects were 
Colin Campbell and Thomas Ripley ; the design is Roman 
treated in the manner of the school of the period, the chief 
order being the Ionic. A quadrangle, three stories high and 
166 feet long upon each side, forms the main building and the 
centre, from which wings of a single story are extended that 
make the whole front 450 feet long. The apartments, of im- 
posing size and richness, held until 1779 a wonderfully large 
and valuable collection of paintings, that were then sold to the 
Empress of Russia for .£45,500, and now form part of the grand 
gallery of the Hermitage at St. Petersburg, — a precious gain 
there, and an irreparable loss to England. 

The Palladian regularity of plan and semi-classic style were 
even more fully shown at Holkham, 1 Norfolk, built between 
1734 and 1760. It has two fronts, both of which are 344 feet 
in length and constructed of white bricks. A great number of 
large and small mansions, erected in the eighteenth century, 
exhibited modifications of the same general style. In the latter 
part of the period the study of Greek art, then a favorite one, 
brought into fashion designs more or less strictly classic ; but 
the Gothic Revival soon followed, and not many of them were 
executed. Mansions or castles supposed to conform to the 
styles used by mediaeval architects were much more numerous; 
but they are of such recent date that they can hardly yet be 
called monumental, and a description of them can be properly 
omitted here, and reference made to Mr. Eastlake's interesting 
history. 2 A better taste has grown in later years, that, with 
the still increasing wealth of the nation, continues to add to the 

1 See Vitruvius Britannicus, vol. v. plates 64-69. 

2 Eastlake, C. L. A History of the Gothic Revival. Fine cuts. Imp. 8°. 
London, 1872. 



388 THE PATRICIAN PALACES. 

number of the great mansions while guarding well the memorials 
of history and art which abound among those most distinctive 
treasures of the country, " The Stately Homes of England." 

Stowe l in Buckinghamshire, by successive changes made 
through the eighteenth century, became one of the largest and 
most magnificent examples of the taste and wealth of the 
landed nobility in Great Britain. It is the chief seat of the 
Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos, descended in the former 
line from Leofric, Earl of Chester, who died in 1057, and in 
the latter from the Earl of Richmond, afterwards Henry VII. 
Stowe, meaning an eminence, is an ancient manor, with a 
history extending to Saxon times, that in 1592 became the 
property of the present family of Temple. A comparatively 
plain, angular mansion, dating from 1560, was replaced by a 
vast palatial edifice in Roman style, with a Corinthian portico 
in the centre and pavilions at the ends, finished in 1775. In- 
cluding wings, that contain offices, the whole length of the main 
front is 916 feet, all of which was designed by Lords Cobham 
and Camelford. The apartments, 2 not completed until within 
the present century, are on a corresponding scale of size and 
magnificence. One of the most remarkable is the Saloon, 
decorated at a cost of X 12,000, and surrounded by sixteen 
rich columns bearing an attic covered with an alto-relievo in 
which there are more than three hundred figures about four 
feet high. An extraordinary collection of paintings, marbles, 
china, and superb bric-a-brac, formed by generations of the 
family and distributed throughout the house, was dispersed in 
1848 at a sale 3 that occupied forty days, and was one of several 

1 See " Stowe, A Description of the House and Gardens of the Most Noble 
and Puissant Prince, Richard Grenville Nugent Chandos Temple, Duke of Buck- 
ingham and Chandos, etc. Only Twenty-five Copies." Large 4°. Buckingham, 
1827. The numerous plates in the writer's copy are on India paper. 

2 The dimensions in feet of some of the chief apartments, etc., are copied 
from this work : — 

Long. Wide. High. 

Drawing-room 50. 32. 22. 

State Dining-room 76. 25. 22. 

State Dressing-room 30. 24.8 19.4 

State Bedroom 50.8 35.10 19.4 

8 See The Stowe Catalogue Priced and Annotated. By H. R. Forster, 4°, 
London, 1848. (The total amount realized at the sale was £75,562, 4, 6.) 





Long. 


Wide. 


High. 


Portico 


58. 


28.6 


43. 


Saloon 


60. 


43. 


56.7 


Chapel 


37. 


20.10 


26. 


Library 


76. 


25. 


19.4 



L0WTHER CASTLE; ALTON TOWERS; EATON HALL. 389 

recent events full of opportunities for persons who gather rare 
objects, but nevertheless very sad and much to be regretted. 

Years must pass and age must come before the numerous 
modern residences erected during the late Classic and Gothic 
revivals, and in recent times, attain the historical position of 
the great mansions which have been described. Many of them, 
however, are of such importance that in this place a few of 
them must be mentioned. 

Lowther Castle, Westmoreland, seat of the ancient family 
of the Earl of Lonsdale, was begun in 1808 and built from 
designs by Robert Smirke, jr., in English style of the fourteenth 
century. As the north front is 420 feet long, the great Terrace 
nearly a mile long, and the surrounding park of immense ex- 
tent, abounding in old trees and fine scenery, some conception 
can be formed of this early revival of the national style ap- 
plied to domestic edifices. Alton Towers, seat of the Earl of 
Shrewsbury, was another imposing work of the Gothic revival, 
less castellated in form ; and Eaton Hall, Cheshire, seat of the 
Marquis, now Duke, of Westminster, finished about 1814, was 
a marvel of elegance in its time. It has, however, already 
been replaced by the new Hall, that is among the wonders 
of England. On page 288 a brief account has been given of 
perhaps the most extraordinary residence of modern times in 
the country, the Duke of Portland's seat. 

The great residences during the last three centuries have 
been prominent monuments of English social life and insti- 
tutions, with a marked effect upon the aspect of the country, 
although relatively less than that given by the monastic es- 
tablishments, which, frequently as they were found, were far 
less numerous. If the influence of the mansions and their 
occupants has been less than was exerted by the ecclesiastics, 
who through more than the preceding three centuries had 
spread the refinement or the learning of their times, it has 
been great. Some conception of the better life and of the 
material surroundings of the old priories and abbeys can be 
formed from the culture and refinement found around the coun- 
try-seats. Still, useful fields and pastures blend with lands set 



390 THE ROYAL PALACES. 

apart from common things, to be enjoyed by the peasant as well 
as the lord, and teach that all of life is not for mere utility of 
the most common sort, but that the charms of Nature graced 
by art are in a due proportion also quite as much needed. 

The mansions built in England since the Revolution of 1688 
are, however, not alone monuments of the current social life of 
the country, but peculiarly, and even more distinctly, of the 
oligarchical control that has existed there through a great part 
of the period. Besides political and social power, hospitality, 
good society, fox-hunting, or acquisition of rare books and 
works of art, have made these houses celebrated. Marvellous 
collections of books, works of art, and bric-a-brac have graced 
them ; many retained, and not a few of late dispersed. But 
happily the world is better off in some ways than when the 
monkish treasures were scattered. The ancestral home often 
yet can keep its precious things ; but when the separation must 
come, no reckless spoilers now await it. In their stead are 
eager buyers with a readier desire to take good care of every 
valued object, so that if partings occur, the world of new col- 
lectors is enriched, regret for the inevitable is mitigated, and 
something of the charm of the old home seems to go with the 
treasures even to distant homes across the sea. 



THE EOYAL PALACES. 1 

While the residences of the nobility and gentry of England 
are very numerous and illustrate in a remarkable manner her 
history for centuries, the memorials of the still more promi- 
nent life and part of royalty are, aside from Windsor Cas- 
tle, peculiarly few, and less striking, especially if the relative 
importance of the sovereigns is considered, or comparison is 
made with the palaces of other European nations France has 
St. Germain, Blois, Fontainebleau, and Versailles, to show the 
changes of the national taste or abilities in art, and the course 
of the royal power that shaped her destiny. In Italy the Vati- 

1 See Ptne, W. H., History of the Royal Residences, etc. 100 plates, finely 
colored by hand, 3 vols. imp. 4°, London, 1819. (Published at £25, 4.) 



THE EOYAL PALACES. 391 

can and Quirinal illustrate the long history of the papacy ; 
the Ducal Palace stands a unique memorial of the marvel- 
lous Venetian state ; the Pitti of the Tuscan Dukes ; the vast 
Caserta of the Bourbons once at Naples ; the array of edifices 
grouped at Mantua of the Gonzagas ; and thus many others of 
the many powers now represented by the Crown of Italia Una. 
Russia has the immense and curious Kremlin, and the Her- 
mitage full of gems of art. Spain has the Alhambra and 
Escorial. But royal power that once was predominant in Eng- 
land has few adequate material memorials of its former impor- 
tance, around which have crystallized associations with a long 
period of her history. The oldest large existing palace, Hamp- 
ton Court, dates only from the reign of Henry VIII., and a 
great part of that is over a century and a half more modern. 
Fragments of others even earlier may be found, as of Eltham 
in Kent, frequented by the kings of the Houses of Plantagenet, 
Lancaster, York, and Tudor, which was forsaken for Green- 
wich and subsequently almost completely destroyed. It was 
of great size and surrounded by a very broad moat, some traces 
of which, and nearly the whole of the great hall (100 by 36 
feet), remain ; but the latter was for a long time used as a 
barn. Greenwich, where Henry VIII., Queen Mary and Queen 
Elizabeth were born, is represented by the splendid Hospital, 
which dates chiefly from the reign of William III. Richmond, 
a royal residence from the end of the reign of Edward I. until 
about the middle of the seventeenth century, when, with the 
exception of a gateway, it was pulled down, was very large. 
Its size can be conceived from that of the great hall (100 by 
40 feet), of the chapel (96 by 40 feet), "with stalls as in a 
cathedral," and of the gallery 200 feet in length. Nonsuch 
in Surrey, built by Henry VIII., was one of the marvels of his 
time, " rivalling the monuments of ancient Rome itself," wrote 
Camden. It had two courts, one 150 feet by 132, and the 
other 137 by 116. Queen Elizabeth, who liked it very much, 
Anne, Queen of James I., and Queen Henrietta Maria, were its 
chief occupants. Charles II. granted it in trust for Barbara, 
Duchess of Cleveland and Baroness of Nonsuch. She pulled 
it down, and thus showed the degradation to which the home 



392 THE ROYAL PALACES. 

of the Virgin Queen, and the England Elizabeth had glorified, 
were then reduced. Of the early metropolitan palaces, there 
are few relics. One of the most curious and picturesque was 
in the Tower, but its destruction has been " entire and com- 
plete," says Mr. Brewer, who also says of that at " Westmin- 
ster, the Hall alone remains, ... of Baynard's Castle nothing 
whatever ; of Whitehall, the doubtful foundations of a wall ; of 
the Savoy, the chapel (a small one) ; and of St. James's, the 
gateway " and a few parts. Of Kennington, he adds, " even 
the site is doubtful," and of the Bridewell not one stone re- 
mains. Even the several revolutions and the utter change of 
government in Paris have been less destructive than events in 
London. Conceptions of the palaces in the latter associated 
with any great length or remoteness of time must, indeed, be 
formed from printed pages, drawings, or engravings, rather 
than from architectural monuments. 

The chief palace of the sovereigns in London from the 
reign of Henry VIII. to that of James I. was Whitehall. 
It had belonged to the See of York and had been enlarged 
until it was a vast " aggregation of irregular buildings " that 
lacked convenience and dignity. James I. resolved to replace 
it by a worthy structure, and proved that he had good taste by 
adopting a design by Inigo Jones. Although the foreign Renais- 
sance was to be used, the architect was an English, and a Lon- 
don, man, born there in 1572, and educated by years of study 
in Italy. He was the Michael Angelo of the new style in Eng- 
land, her great representative in it, and perhaps the man who 
did most both to change and mark the taste of the country in 
the transition from the old Pointed to the Renaissance. As 
Walpole wrote, " Vitruvius drew up his grammar ; Palladio 
showed him the practice ; Rome displayed a theatre worthy 
of his emulation ; and King Charles was ready to encourage, 
employ, and reward his talents. This is the history of Inigo 
Jones as a genius." (Anecdotes of Painting, vol. ii., 402, ed. 
1849.) His plan was of a palace 874 feet long on the east 
and west sides towards the Thames and the park, and 1152 
feet long on the sides towards the Abbey and Charing Cross. 
Within this area there were to be seven courts. 



WHITEHALL ; HAMPTON COURT. 393 

Only a fragment of the immense design was ever executed ; 
yet that alone is one of the noblest civil buildings in Great 
Britain. It is the Banqueting House, showing two stories 
externally, but internally consisting of a hall, 111 feet long, 
and 55^ feet in both length and height, for many years used as a 
chapel. Even more remarkable than its admirable side towards 
the street is its ceiling, painted by Rubens in 1635. 

Had James I. and Charles I. been as enthusiastic devotees 
of art (and both of them liked it) as they were of conceptions 
of the royal prerogative, the history of England might have 
been different in their century, the mighty plan have been real- 
ized in an accomplished fact, the regal gallery of their paint- 
ings saved to England, and, if Whitehall grew too vast for 
even English royalty, a shrine of the three sister arts might 
have been raised, nobler than Versailles, the Caserta, Hermitage, 
or Escorial, to which the English-speaking people scattered 
throughout the earth, two centuries later, would have made 
more than willing pilgrimages. But the two kings, or a 
higher power, shaped differently the affairs of England, and 
the glorious opportunity was lost. Even the design of the 
great architect, presented by him to James I. in 1618, 1 was 
for a long time not publicly known. It is now appropriately 
kept among the drawings in the Royal collection at Windsor 
Castle. 

Hampton Court owes its existence,, and a great deal of its 
interest, to the distinguished minister of Henry VIII., the last 
of the magnificent mediaeval ecclesiastics who held such a posi- 
tion in England. Cardinal Wolsey, Archbishop of York and 
Lord High Chancellor, began the palace in 1516, designing it 
to be his country-seat near London, fourteen miles distant. In 
1526 he gave it to his jealous sovereign, who completed it ac- 
cording to the original plans. Enough remains to give one a 
conception of the stateliness maintained by the great Cardinal, 
whose suite consisted of eight hundred persons. The edifice 
has three quadrangles, of which one towards the west, 169 by 
141 feet, is unchanged, the central one, 133 by 134 feet, is partly 
1 See two lithographs in The Building News, Dec. 19, 1884. 



394 THE ROYAL PALACES. 

so, and the third, 110 hy 117 feet, was built by Wren, in 1690, 
in modified classic style. A large part of the buildings erected 
by the Cardinal are two stories high. All are in Tudor style, 
and are constructed of bricks, now dull-red, laid in black ce- 
ment, relieved by light stone dressings, varied by turrets and the 
imposing height of the great hall, and crowned by battlements. 
The hall, built by Henry VIII., and restored in 1820, is pecu- 
liarly English, and one of the most magnificent examples of its 
kind in the ancient style and plan. It is 106 feet in length, 40 
feet wide, and 60 feet in height. The roof, with a high double 
pitch, shows its timber frame, complex in plan, elaborately 
carved, and richly colored and gilded. The lower portion of 
the walls is covered with German or Flemish tapestry that 
represents, on a large scale, eight scenes described in the Old 
Testament. Tall traceried windows occupy the upper por- 
tion, and are filled with stained glass placed there in 1846, and 
exhibiting a brilliant array of the heraldic insignia of the Plan- 
tagenet, Lancastrian, and Tudor royal families and their con- 
nections. The usual features of the screen and the dais with 
its large oriel are also seen, the latter of rare size and mag- 
nificence. Beyond the hall is the Presence Chamber, a very 
large room of the same period, hung with tapestry, now faded. 
Here the windows are mullioned, in the late Pointed style, but 
the flat ceiling is Elizabethan or Jacobean, and divided into 
many panels by ribs forming a geometrical design. These two 
large apartments form the chief portion of the interior of the 
early buildings, showing the former stateliness, for a great deal 
is now taken up with small rooms, occupied by several hundred 
private persons to whom they have been assigned. 

The banquets, masques, and hospitality at Hampton Court 
when the great Cardinal lived there were of unusual magnifi- 
cence ; indeed in gorgeous picturesqueness they, perhaps, have 
never been surpassed in England. There was a policy in all 
this pageantry, says Mr. Pyne, who gives a full account of it, 
for reports of it would be given by ambassadors to foreign 
courts, " and their sovereigns would naturally infer, that the 
riches and power of a monarch must be great indeed, whose 
minister could entertain strangers in so princely a style." 



HAMPTON COURT. 395 

After the fall of Wolsey, in 1529, the king was frequently at 
Hampton Court, and, for more than two centuries that followed, 
it became associated with the presence and history of royalty. 
Here Edward VI. was born in October, 1537, and was baptized 
in the chapel. His mother, Jane Seymour, married the king 
the day after Anne Boleyn was executed, May 20th, 1536, and 
died a few days after the birth of the prince. On the 8th of 
August, 1540, her successor, Katharine Howard, appeared pub- 
licly here, the royal husband she had ventured to take having 
in the same year had his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, from 
whom he was divorced upon the 9th of June. In the eight- 
eenth month of her marriage t Katharine died on the scaffold 
in the Tower of London. July 12th, 1543, Henry married, at 
Hampton Court, Katharine Parr, who here became the first 
Protestant queen of England, and who happily survived him, — 
not, however, without narrowly escaping the fate of her prede- 
cessor. It is through this truly English queen that royalty in 
her time is associated nobly with the ancient palace. Katharos, 
meaning " pure as a limpid stream," says Miss Strickland 
(III. 175), well describes " the learned and virtuous matron 
who directed the studies of Lady Jane Gray, Edward VI., and 
Queen Elizabeth, and who may, with truth, be called the nurs- 
ing-mother of the Reformation." Of Henry VIII. it may be 
well said, as the authoress quotes from Raleigh, " If all the 
patterns of a merciless tyrant had been lost to the world, they 
might have been found in this prince." 

Edward VI. held court sometimes at Hampton, and on 
one occasion the town, that adjoins the palace, was armed to 
protect him, and for safety he withdrew to Windsor Castle. 
Queen Mary and Philip of Spain spent their not over festive 
honeymoon here, — a less interesting incident in the history of 
the place than was the visit made a little later by the Princess 
Elizabeth, whose freedom from the close confinement in which 
she had been held was owing, it is said, to Philip. The old revels 
and stately Christmas feasts were maintained ; and while Eliza- 
beth was queen the latter were repeated by her in 1572 and 
1593, thus making the Great Hall one of the few grand rooms 
still standing associated with her presence. 



396 THE ROYAL PALACES. 

The Stuarts continued the royal use of Hampton. In Jan- 
uary, 1603-1604, James I. made it the scene of the well-known 
conference between the Presbyterians and Episcopalians, one 
result of which was the immortal version of the Bible that has 
borne the name of the king. For fourteen days in 1606, he 
entertained here the Prince of Vaudemois and a large French 
party, and here his queen, Anne of Denmark, died in 1618. 
Hither came Charles I. and Queen Henrietta to escape the 
plague in 1625, when the king in his full power received the 
ambassadors of France, Transylvania, and Denmark. Six- 
teen years later, for far different reasons, and in far different 
circumstances, their Majesties sought refuge at Hampton from 
dangerous turmoil in London, and in 1647 also at Hampton, 
occurred, one of the scenes in the utterly changed condition of 
Charles I. when he made " the last external appearances of being 
yet a king." The Lord Protector lived here in the pomp of 
royalty, and here his daughter Elizabeth was married in 1657, 
and another, Mrs. Claypole, died in the next year. During the 
Civil War, the palace was stripped of many works of art, to 
the gain of foreign nations and the great loss of England. In 
1651, the estate was sold by Parliament for £ 10,765 19s. 9d., 
but was acquired by Cromwell in 1656. Charles II. and 
James II. seldom used Hampton as a residence ; William III., 
however, made it one of his favorite seats, and within two 
years from his accession Wren erected for him, on the site of 
parts of the old palace, the quadrangle called the Fountain 
Court, and the extensive suite of state apartments. 

The new palace has little of the grace and splendor of the 
vast edifice that Louis XIV. of France had built, and had 
begun to occupy, a few years before William III. reconstructed 
Hampton, influenced perhaps by the example of his exalted 
royal neighbor. Its design, of a much modified classic sort 
and somewhat heavy, shows an exterior of red bricks varied 
by abundant light stone dressings toned by age, part of which 
have the advantage of a setting made by formal but attractive 
gardens. Throughout the interior the walls are finished chiefly 
with solid oak that has grown very sombre, and gives an effect 
of rather gloomy stateliness, or imposing quaintness. " The 



HAMPTON COURT. 397 

sprawling Gods and Goddesses of Verrio and Laguerre " appear 
on several ceilings ; others present bare plaster. Plain boards 
form the floors, and furniture is not abundant. But there is a 
vast collection of historic portraits of unusual value in the 
many rooms, besides a great number of paintings by English, 
Dutch, and Italian artists. The chief entrance to the state 
apartments is by a large staircase, in a hall, the upper parts 
and ceiling of which are elaborately painted to represent a con- 
cert attended by the Deities of Olympus, and allegories com- 
plimentary to William III. The first room in the suite is the 
Guard Chamber, 60 feet in length, 37 feet wide, and 30 feet 
high, decorated with groups of superseded arms and armor 
sufficient for a thousand men. Beyond it are two Presence 
Chambers, the audience chamber containing the damask canopy 
beneath which James II. received the Papal Nuncio, the king's 
Drawing-room, Writing Closet, and Dressing-room, and the Bed- 
room of William III. The details of the latter are exception- 
ally fine, and the bed is covered with very rich and well-kept 
embroidery. A picture filling the ceiling, representing Night 
and Morning, is one of the freshest existing works df Verrio. 
Gibbons's elaborate carving in box, that ornaments many of 
the rooms, especially the chimney-pieces, is abundant here, and 
fills the frieze with marvellous scrolls and flowers. His crea- 
tions — for such they may well be called — are among the most 
distinguished productions of the minor fine arts in England 
during the period in which he lived. The rooms just named 
are brightened by exposure to the south, and from their win- 
dows command a pleasant view of the private gardens and the 
country far beyond them. In this room of William III. there 
are, but somewhat strangely associated with him, several of 
the well-known Beauties of the Court of Charles II., 1 as Sir 
Peter Lely has shown them. Queen Catharine appears in a 
light steel-brown dress ; the Duchess of Richmond in light 
brown ; Nell Gwynne in a dark-yellow waist and very dark-red 
skirt, attended by a very dark lamb ; the Countess of Rochester 

1 See Jameson, Mrs. A., Memoirs of the Beauties of the Court of Charles II. ; 
portraits, imp. 8°, London, 1851. The colors mentioned, like many other de- 
tails of description, are according to the writer's Notebook. 



398 THE ROYAL PALACES. 

in light-blue over white ; the Countess of Northumberland in 
dark, dull russet-brown ; Lady Whitmore in dull slaty-purple ; 
the Countess of Ossory in light-blue and white drapery be- 
neath it ; Lady Dunham in dull yellow ; and the Countess 
de Grammont in dull-red drapery. Upon another side of the 
palace is the Queen's Gallery, a very large room containing a 
great number of curious portraits of personages of the family 
or period of the later Tudors, and including many works by 
Holbein and artists of the Low Countries as well as Italy. The 
next apartment, Queen Anne's Bedroom, associated chiefly with 
her, has a coved ceiling, painted by Sir James Thornhill, in good 
order, although slightly cracked ; its subject is Aurora rising 
from the sea. Some of the old furniture remains here, and 
among it is the bed, with rich velvet hangings that are even 
now little faded. Adjoining this chamber is the Queen's Draw- 
ing-room, with a ceiling by Verrio representing Queen Anne 
as Justice. The painting has lost some of its freshness and is 
seamed with cracks, and the coverings of the richly gilt furni- 
ture are faded. Among nearly twenty pictures by West hung 
in the room, is the well-known " Death of General "Wolfe," 
placed opposite the central window, from which is seen the long 
vista of the canal and avenue that are prominent features in 
the grounds of the palace. Many of the numerous other rooms 
are finished in similar, although simpler, style ; but as all the 
apartments have long been unoccupied by royalty, they have 
of course a less pleasing effect than if they were completely 
furnished : yet they are valuable monuments of the arts two 
centuries ago, and the associations lingering in them give them 
interest. 

The life of the sovereign who did much to establish the 
modern renown and power of England was intimately associ- 
ated with the palace, and the queen of the Augustan age of 
English literature occasionally lived in it. George I. and 
George II., who perhaps did not invest it with great glory, 
were also occupants. The former, in 1718, fitted up the Great 
Hall as a theatre, — a use made of it by Elizabeth and James I., 
before whom there, according to tradition, some of the plays 
of Shakspeare were first acted. George II. and Queen Caro- 



KENSINGTON PALACE ; ST. JAMES'S PALACE. 399 

line were the last sovereigns who made Hampton Court a 
residence. 

Beyond the gardens — imposing examples of the old for- 
mal style — is Bushy Park, containing one of the noblest Eng- 
lish avenues, one mile and forty yards long, lined by rows of 
horse-chestnut and lime trees, varied about mid- way by a large 
circle. There is nothing of the sort more beautiful and mag- 
nificent than the array of the horse-chestnuts here in June 
when they are filled with flowers. 

Kensington Palace, at the west end of Kensington Gar- 
dens and Hyde Park, London, is externally a large, plain, red- 
brick building, dating chiefly from the time of William III., 
who bought the house of the Earl of Nottingham, and recon- 
structed it according to designs by Wren. Queen Anne and 
George I. made alterations, carried out by Hawksmoor, Wren's 
scholar. The apartments are far richer than is the exterior, 
and show the taste that prevailed at the close of the seven- 
teenth century and through the thirty years following. Wil- 
liam III., Queen Mary, Queen Anne, her husband, George I. 
and George II., spent much time here, and all of them except 
George I. died here ; indeed there may be no other place associ- 
ated with more of the incidents of their lives. After the death 
of George II., Oct. 25, 1760, Kensington was seldom a resi- 
dence of royalty ; the Duke of Sussex, son of George III., 
however lived and died in the palace, where, also, he collected 
his large and noble library. Her Majesty, Queen Victoria, was 
born there in 1819, and there held her first council. The apart- 
ments contain many good paintings, and are more varied and 
cheerful in style than those at Hampton Court, and some of 
them are rich and stately. 

St. James's Palace, also in London, dates from the reign 
of Henry VIII. ; but little of the existing building is as early 
as his time. Its importance as the town residence of royalty 
began in the reign of William III., and it was the sole town 
palace until the reign of Victoria, during which it has con- 
tinued to be used upon state occasions. Many notable incidents 



400 THE ROYAL PALACES. 

in the history of the royal families have occurred here, and the 
long and especial use made of the unimposing but convenient 
structure has given its familiar name to the court. The apart- 
ments are numerous and well fitted for great ceremonies, but 
the exterior is low and simple. One of the most ancient and 
curious parts is the well-known gateway on Pall Mall, in late 
Tudor style, flanked by modern work that shows how a plain 
and even shabby specimen of the former surpasses some things 
made in later times. The palaces in London have, however, 
little of the relative importance of those in large Continental 
cities. 

Kew Palace, an old structure occupied by George III., about 
six miles west of London, was to have been replaced by one 
that he began, intended to be in the early national style ; but 
it was never finished, and was taken down in 1828. Kew is 
now chiefly distinguished for its Botanic Gardens, that have 
few rivals in size, value, and beauty. 

Buckingham Palace * shows even more distinctly the lack 
of antiquity in the English residences of royalty ; indeed it has 
so recently attained its rank that it can hardly be called a 
historical building. It is, however, a representative, and the 
latest, of the first estate in the realm, and it is constantly out- 
living any deficiencies supposed to arise from youth. While 
by no means an ideal of imperial dignity and splendor, it has, 
like some good people, been harshly judged for what it is not, 
rather than for what it is. It has an advantageous position at 
the head of the noble avenue in St. James's Park, and a long- 
front in simple, modified Italian style that at least is better 
than the fronts of some other palaces. Color is not given by 
any of the materials used except paint, and this from time 
to time varies. Yet, far inferior to the old front of the 
Tuileries, to the Pitti, the Caserta, or the palace at Madrid, 
plastered and done up occasionally like a common house, 
not a fine house, — it does justify some English talk about 
its peculiarities. 

1 See Gruner, L., Decorations of the Garden-Pavilion, Buckingham Palace, 
15 plates, text by Mrs. Jameson, royal folio, London, 1846; an elegant book, 
showing examples of some of the modern decoration of this palace. 



CIVIL BUILDINGS. — THE TOWN HALL. 401 

Buckingham House, that occupied the site, has left its name 
for the existing edifice, designed by John Nash, built in the 
reigns of George IV. and William IV., and extensively changed 
during the present reign, to which its history as a royal resi- 
dence is confined. The interior, if preserved for generations 
like the rooms at Hampton Court, would show the elegances 
known to the highest life of England in the nineteenth cent- 
ury ; and certainly no palace would be its superior in associa- 
tions with a home life that has done much to make England 
strong and great, and that adds a distinction even to the glories 
of the sovereign lady whose virtues will- be honored long after 
the remotest possible existence of Buckingham. 



CIVIL BUILDINGS, 

LAW, MUNICIPAL, AND STATE. 

The edifices of any country built for the transaction of its 
civil business are among its most important monuments, less 
interesting than some others, it may be, in personal associa- 
tions, but prominent in evidences of the taste and art of the 
nation, and the importance and character of its institutions. 
Law is so pre-eminent and necessary in civilized communities 
that the chief structures connected with its administration are 
peculiarly suggestive. While the limits of these pages and the 
subject treated on them will of course admit no essay on the 
constitution and the general and local forms of government, or 
any full account of the numerous buildings that stand where the 
fountain-heads or springs of social order rise and flow, some 
representative examples will be found to be full of significance. 

The Town Hall, a material monument of local civil power 
of great importance in the country, hardly has obtained, until 
quite recent times, the grandeur, richness, or importance that 
is shown in Belgium, or that it is obtaining lately in America ; 
for the largest, and in some ways most remarkable, of local civil 
buildings is now rising there, in Philadelphia. The number of 
Town Halls in England built in the last century is noticeable. 

26 



402 CIVIL BUILDINGS. 

Of those that are older, one at Boston, Lincolnshire, has pecu- 
liar interest, especially to Americans. It was the Guildhall of 
St. Mary, 1 and was granted to the Corporation by Philip and 
Mary, and has been subsequently used by that body. Its size 
is small, and the design is simple, chiefly shown in a narrow 
gabled front built of bricks with stone dressings, the chief feat- 
ure of which is a large sharply pointed traceried window in 
late Perpendicular. But little of the ancient style remains in 
the interior to show its aspect when, probably, some of the Pil- 
grim Fathers of New England were examined there previous to 
their escape to Holland. 

The courts of the county are often held in the building used 
by the municipal authorities of one of its large towns. There 
is an example in the Guildhall at Worcester, an important dark 
brick building with abundant light stone dressings, finished in 
1723 from designs of White, a native of the place and a pupil 
of Sir Christopher Wren. Besides the apartments for the 
courts and other bodies, it contains a hall 110 feet long, 25 
feet wide, and 20 feet high. 

The immense growth of the important English towns during 
the present century, while evident in many ways, has a peculiar 
expression in several of the Town Halls and edifices for the 
courts. An admiration of classic models and style that has 
continued to be marked is shown in the designs of many of 
these buildings. Birmingham between 1828 and 1834 erected 
a Town Hall from a design by Harris, based on that of the 
temple of Jupiter Stator at Rome. A rusticated basement 23 
feet high supports a portico of fluted Corinthian columns 45 
feet high surrounding the body of the building, and at the pedi- 
ment reaching a height of 83 feet. A large part of the interior 
is filled by a hall 140 feet long, 65 feet wide, and 65 feet high, 
one of the uses of which is for musical festivals, that form 
another new and marked English characteristic. 

Leeds, between 1853 and 1858, at a cost of about <£120,000, 
built another large Town Hall in classic style, but less suggest- 
ive of a temple. A lofty vestibule opens to the main room, 

1 See History of Boston, etc., P. Thompson, Boston, 1856, pp. 234-236. 



LIVERPOOL. 403 

162 feet long, 72 feet wide, and 75 feet high, lined by Corin- 
thian pillars with red marble (?) shafts that are set in pairs 
and support a high barrel vault. There is a great deal of gild- 
ing and color in the decoration, and an imposing effect is 
obtained. 

Liverpool has within a few years erected a large Town Hall 
in Renaissance style for municipal offices. The courts and 
great hall for meetings and festivals fill an edifice in classic 
style, more Greek than Roman, finished in 1854 from designs 
by Lonsdale Elmes, at a cost of £400,000. St. George's Hall is 
one of the largest, noblest, and most perfect works of modern 
times based on antique models ; its mere dimensions, indeed, 
are in themselves impressive. Along the chief front, which 
extends 420 feet, is a very broad portico with sixteen Corin- 
thian columns, 46 or 50 (?) feet high, and at the east end there 
is another of eight columns with a depth of two intercolum- 
niations. Every detail is of the best Greek, although the varied 
grouping is far more complicated than that of antique designs. 
In the centre of the building is a hall 169 feet long, 75 feet 
wide, and 85 feet high, the design of which is suggested by 
some of the halls in the great baths at Rome. Magnificent 
elaboration, grand proportions, rich materials, color, and lavish 
gilding, make it probably the most superb work of its kind 
in modern times, a worthy civic companion of the Madeleine. 
The one regret caused by a sight of this beautiful and grand 
edifice is that it is exposed in the mud and dismal atmosphere 
of Liverpool. It sadly needs around it the cleanliness and 
usual sunshine in which the French church stands ; but it 
has the advantage of a site on the crest of a slope of ground ; 
yet even this lacks, of course, the appropriate majestic isolation 
and commanding place, as well as the serene air, of the third 
great modern example of classic style, the Walhalla. Victor 
Emanuel's monument at Rome will probably surpass all the 
three in position and magnificence. But Liverpool did not cre- 
ate its climate ; its skill is shown in miles of amazing docks, 
and its taste, as well as wealth, in glorious St. George's Hall. 

The Gothic Revival has characteristically marked other 
buildings of this class. A very notable example appears in 



404 CIVIL BUILDINGS. 

the Assize Courts at Manchester, designed by Mr. Alfred 
Waterhouse, in Pointed of the thirteenth century eclecti- 
cally treated, and begun in 1869. They occupy a block 
measuring 373, 306, and 336 feet on the various sides, and 
are crowned by a tower 260 feet high. A very convenient plan 
has been proved to have been provided ; and, says Mr. East- 
lake, " with regard to the artistic merits of the work, it will 
be time enough to criticise when any better modern structure 
of its size and style has been raised in this country." 

London of course contains pre-eminent examples of civic 
buildings. The Guildhall, although dating from the earlier 
part of the fifteenth century and in Pointed style, is chiefly, so 
far as it is now seen, a work of the Gothic Revival. The old 
buildings were seriously damaged in the Great Fire, and only 
a crypt and some of the original walls remain. In 1789 a front 
was built that was as poor as anything ever intended to be in a 
mediaeval style. Immeasurably better is the Great Hall, 153 
feet long, 50 feet wide (48, says Pennant, p. 285), and 55 feet 
high, — a grand room in the old national form and style, re- 
cently decorated, but possessing few notable monuments or 
works of art except the exquisite colored statues of Gog and 
Magog. The Council Chamber, also in Pointed style, was 
opened in October, 1884. It is twelve-sided, 54 feet in diame- 
ter, with a domical roof from which, and near w r hich, it is 
lighted, and contains seats for 206 Councilmen. The room for 
the Aldermen is of course smaller, and is richly ornamented. 

Law and its representatives, the lawyers, are established 
in several groups of buildings, known as Inns of Court, that 
are spread midway across London from the Thames to some 
distance beyond Holborn. The most southern, as well as the 
largest of them, is The Temple, divided into the Outer, Middle, 
and Inner, built on the site of the establishment of the Knights 
Templars, occupied by them between 1184 and 1313. Their 
successors to the place, the Knights of St. John, leased a por- 
tion to the students of the Common Law ; but it was not until 
1608 that the Temple was granted by the Crown to the Bench- 
ers, by whom it is held under that tenure. With a few excep- 
tions, the most ancient structures have given way to a variety 



LONDON: THE TEMPLE. 405 

of red-brick buildings, generally ugly and altogether dingy, but 
some of the chief parts have been in a measure preserved. 
The oldest and most interesting of them is the Church, dedi- 
cated to St. Mary} consisting of a round body in Norman and 
Transition styles, consecrated in 1185, but probably rebuilt and 
reconsecrated in 1240, with a choir, or chancel, in Early Eng- 
lish. Beneath the latter are foundations of an earlier struc- 
ture. Internally the present length is 140 feet, the breadth 58 
feet, and the diameter of the round part also 58 feet. Repairs 
were made in 1682 ; the southwestern part was rebuilt in 1695 ; 
other work was done in 1811 ; and far more important changes 
were effected between 1839 and 1842, when the choir was almost 
reconstructed, at a cost of £ 70,000, under the direction of 
Sidney Smirke, F. S. A., and the round part has also been 
" restored." A considerable amount of color is used in scrolls 
and medallions on the vaults and walls of the choir, and in 
more elaborate forms, heightened by gilding, on the reredos ; 
while in the round part, dark polished shafts relieve prevailing 
neutral tints given by the stone of which the walls are com- 
posed, and stained glass brightens the effect of the whole inte- 
rior. Of course it is evident that the edifice is chiefly a repro- 
duction. The Rail of the Middle Temple, 100 feet long, 42 
feet wide, and 47 feet high, was built in 1572, and has a timber 
roof, said to be the best specimen of Elizabethan work in Lon- 
don. In 1757 the exterior was recased, and showed how a 
style could then be executed. One of the most picturesque 
buildings is the Library of the Middle Temple, opened in 1861, 
and costing £14,000. It stands by itself, crowned with a high 
steep roof, beneath which is the chief room, 85 by 42 feet, and 
63! f ee t high? lighted by fourteen windows filled with stained 
glass. 

There are few more interesting and effective views along the 
Thames in its course through London than are presented by the 
Temple Gardens, where such of the hardier flowers as can 
endure the usual murky air are scattered along the grass-plots, 
and among shrubbery and trees, with which the buildings are 

1 Essex, W. R. H., Illustrations, etc., of the Temple Church, 40 plates, folio, 
London, 1845. 



406 CIVIL BUILDINGS. 

pleasingly grouped. Heartily indeed may the Benchers, and 
London, be congratulated for the Temple. 

Lincoln's Inn, north of the Strand, although dating from the 
fourteenth century, is said to show nothing older than the ear- 
lier part of the sixteenth, and is chiefly distinguished archi- 
tecturally by a notable work executed when the Gothic Revival 
was gaining strength. Mr. Hard wick, in 1843, built, in the 
Tudor style, the blocks containing the Hall, Library, Council- 
room, and various minor rooms. Red-brick walls checkered 
with black, dressings of pale stone, turrets, battlements, and 
gables form a picturesque design grouping well with the trees 
and shrubs of the grounds, and showing well how a form of 
Pointed peculiar to the country could be revived appropriately 
for the use of men who had much to do with the daily business 
of the present. Both the Hall, 120 by 45 feet and 62 feet 
high, and the Library, 80 by 40 feet and 44 feet high, have 
open timber roofs, also in a peculiar English style, and are 
among the most prominent features of this Inn. 

The new Law Courts, between the Temple and Lincoln's 
Inn, form, however, by far the most important group of build- 
ings in England devoted to the business of the law. After 
a notable competition for designs, the vast and complicated 
structure on the Strand, near the site of Temple Bar, has been 
recently erected. With towers, gables, battlements, traceried 
windows, and many another feature of the mediaeval styles, 
it has perhaps nothing more impressive than the superb vaulted 
stone hall, worthy as an approach to the legal wisdom and the 
justice of England. 

The edifices used in the administration of the civil affairs 
of the government or for the legislative bodies of a country 
have been at all times and in all lands important monuments, 
not only of the taste and resources of a nation, but also of 
its condition and the prominence of certain features in its 
institutions. The rapid, great, and recent development of the 
modern nations is significantly shown by the newness of most 
of these structures ; and in England the fact is very noticeable. 
It seems strange indeed that in so old a country the chief 



SOMEESET HOUSE. 407 

edifice for the legislative bodies should be, with the exception of 
a few parts, younger than much of the corresponding edifices in 
the new United States, and that the buildings for the business 
of the War and Navy will be, for the future, newer, or at least 
when done, contemporaneous. Of course the chief edifices of 
this class in England are at the seat of government in London, 
and they are most significant of the increasing power and wide 
rule of the Imperial Island. If certain English criticisms are 
trusted, it is proved that all these buildings are in some way 
architectural failures ; yet their great importance as represen- 
tative works is not lessened. 

Somerset House, Strand, in the main the oldest edifice of 
this class, according to an English opinion is the chief archi- 
tectural work of the reign of George III. Its name is derived 
from the house of the Lord Protector previously upon the site, 
and its use is chiefly for the offices of Audit and Internal 
Revenue. Sir William Chambers designed the building, begun 
in 1776, finished during the next ten years, and forming a 
quadrangle with a court 277 by 224 feet. On the Strand there 
is a front extending 132 feet, and another towards the river is 
about 600 feet long, and has a total height of 100 feet. Wings 
have been subsequently added. The style is a modified classic, 
with many good details and a grouping that is English. While 
the street-front is the best part, the opposite front towards the 
Thames is, notwithstanding critical objections, on a greater 
scale, and is still the most imposing on the long and often 
stately northern bank of the river. A suggestion of the size 
of the building is given by the number of the windows, 
restricted as that is by the style ; there are 3,600. 

Adaptations of classic features characterized the chief build- 
ings erected in England through the eighteenth century. Seve- 
ral of the numerous — perhaps two hundred — great mansions 
that make these forms so prominent in the country, have 
already been described. They are architectural monuments 
rather than comfortable homes, and even their main expres- 
sion is by no means always characterized by grace and palatial 
stateliness. A similar taste is shown, as has been observed, 
in contemporary buildings for courts and municipalities. The 



408 CIVIL BUILDINGS. 

study of ruins of classic works in Greece and Italy, produced 
later in England a classic Renaissance also to some extent 
mentioned in descriptions of Oxford, Cambridge, and the Town 
Halls. Of course this taste was distinctly shown at the capital. 
At the close of the last century the Bank of England, that 
might not improperly be called a government building, received 
much of its present form, extensive, low, marked by a cornice 
and not very useful pillars, and strong walls that enclose an 
area of four acres. There are few other financial institutions 
to be compared with it ; indeed it seems to be an expression 
of the solid strength and the activity of the great empire. 
Between 1825 and 1829 another large edifice, with still more 
distinctive classic features, was built. It also is a monument of 
the modern business and development of the empire, and is a 
government building, the General Post Office, near St. Paul's. 
A few years later, continuing the marked use of the style, arose 
the building of the London University, that, like the Post Office, 
has a classic portico as its most noticeable feature. In 1832 
the National G-allery was begun, and was finished six years 
afterwards, with the exception of some of its best rooms that 
are of recent date. Its position, facing Whitehall and Trafal- 
gar Square, is the most commanding one in the country ; but 
although the edifice is large and has some good details, the 
effect is hardly worthy of the place and the dignity of the 
British lions at the base of Nelson's Column immediately in 
front. Conditions that imposed great difficulties were, how- 
ever, required of the architect, Mr. Wilkins. The chief feature 
of the fagade is a portico taken from Carlton House, the palace 
of George IV., when it was demolished. While regrets are 
unavailing that the nation has not now the large and invalu- 
able collection of works of art formed by Charles I., and that 
Russia has the Houghton Gallery, there is good cause for con- 
gratulation that so many and such varied and precious examples 
of the English and Continental schools of Painting have been 
gathered here. The Gallery, although inferior in different for- 
eign departments to several galleries in other countries, is, as a 
whole, a remarkably good one for illustration of all the great 
schools, and in this respect it is entitled to high rank. 



THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 409 

The British Museum, designed by Sir Robert Smirke, was 
begun in 1823 ; and although much of it was finished in a few 
years, it has undergone alterations at various dates. The front 
presents an Ionic portico more than 600 feet in length, doubled 
at the centre, returned around a wing that projects nearly a 
hundred feet forward at each end, and consisting of forty-four 
pillars. Ranges of building, each nearly four hundred feet 
long, enclose an area originally a court, but now filled by a vast 
rotunda used as the Reading-room, one of the most remark- 
able structures in the world. This room and about two thirds 
of the galleries contain the famous library of books and manu- 
scripts ; the other third contains the immense collection of 
Greek, Assyrian, Egyptian, and other antiquities. The style 
of the interior is Roman, sufficiently elaborate for dignity and 
beauty, appropriately colored by art, and unfortunately dis- 
colored by the murky atmosphere. Superior to the size and 
the architecture, distinguished as these are, is the monumental 
expression here of the national appreciation of literature and 
ancient art. It was no earlier than 1753 that Parliament, by 
act, lottery, and appropriation, began the collections, since by 
gift and purchase grown so enormous. Sir Hans Sloane's 
museum, the extremely numerous manuscripts gathered by 
Harley, Earl of Oxford, and the library of Sir Robert Cotton, 
were soon afterwards bought by the nation. 

The history of politics and war is more exciting, and records 
events perhaps of greater import to the nation, than accounts 
of the zealous labors by which individuals became benefactors 
of their country in securing the most notable of the many 
collections forming the renowned Museum ; but there are few 
passages of history, apart from those that tell of principles 
asserted and of rights secured, that are more interesting or 
really more important than those telling us of the formation 
of the galleries and libraries here united. 

The sovereigns from Henry VII., when Caxton introduced 
the press to England, gathered books, and a royal library was 
formed that passed through various vicissitudes, but did not, 
however, attain due dignity and character until both were 
given by Prince Henry, son of James I. From his time the 



410 CIVIL BUILDINGS. 

collection : grew, until it was incorporated 2 with the Sloane and 
Cotton collections, or was represented by the noble library 
chiefly formed by George III., through whose representatives 
after his death it became the property of the nation. It is 
now seen in the truly regal hall of the Museum called the 
King's Library. But no small part of the incalculable literary 
riches of the institution were, like many of its other treasures, 
gathered by private men. In 1799, Mr. C. M. Cracherode of 
London, a collector for forty years, 3 died and bequeathed the 
precious result of his labors. Lord Lansdowne's manuscripts 
were bought, 4 and so, in 1818, were Dr. Burney's classics. Other 
acquisitions from like sources came, pre-eminent among which 
was the glorious library of Thomas Grenville, who died in 1846. 5 
He had for many years held the forestal Chief-Justiceship ; and 
while doing good service in it, bought a library with the profits 
of the office. Only a man with great learning, wealth, and 
industry combined could have formed such a library as he 
formed and gave to the nation. 6 One of the romances of col- 
lecting was the gathering of the matchless " King's Tracts," 
obtained with extraordinary labor by George Thomason, and 
given by George III. They included more than 83,000 publi- 
cations, chiefly pamphlets, issued between 1640 and 1662, giv- 
ing a unique account of one of the most interesting periods of 
English history. 7 For that they are priceless ; for cost to the 
enthusiast who gathered them, they represented several thou- 
sand pounds, great risks and great toil, together with com- 
mercial loss, but treasure to his country such as only the real 
bibliomaniac can secure. In 1762, they were sold for a com- 
paratively small sum to George III. 

Meanwhile there were equally devoted men collecting the 
remains of classic art, some of which were exposed to utter 
ruin if not saved by some one, and they saved them. Lord 
Elgin rescued (1800 to 1816) from the fires of Turkish lime- 

1 See Edwards, E., Lives of the Founders of the British Museum, with 
notices of its chief Augraentors and other Benefactors, 1570-1870, 8°, London, 
1870. The writer is much indebted to the full and interesting accounts in this 
book. 

2 See Edwards, 170. 8 Do., 421. * Do., 435 
5 Do., 680. 6 Do., 678. 7 Do., 332. 



THE ROYAL EXCHANGE. 411 

kilns Grecian sculptures that the world could not replace. 
They were removed from the Athenian sunshine ^to the damp 
and smoky air of London ; but if they had fared like other 
stones which genius had made precious, critics of Lord Elgin 
might have been appeased, no dingy fog be near them now, and 
earth no longer know the metopes of the Parthenon. The new 
Greece was not born at the time of his active acquisition. Sir 
William Hamilton, ambassador to Naples, had earlier (1764 to 
1800) collected vases and other objects immense in number 
and in value. In 1801, the English arms secured many of the 
treasures gathered by the French in Egypt during Napoleon's 
campaign, and three years later Parliament by grant acquired 
the large and valuable collection of ancient marbles, the life- 
work of Charles Towneley. The results of all these efforts and 
of many more are guarded and shown well in the Museum. It 
is the Paradise in which the great collectors live, and from 
which light shines far from out the smoky city, for it irradiates 
the empire with some of the brightest rays of England's glory. 

The last four buildings mentioned represent the importance 
of the nation in finance, its vast means for public intercourse, 
and its devotion to ancient and modern literature and art; all, 
like what they stand for, of comparatively recent date. Another 
class of structures, less public, are striking expressions of the 
immense development of commercial power, grown with the 
imperial growth, and one of the chief sources of its strength. 
In Liverpool, Manchester, and various centres of trade, the 
Exchange is a large, elaborate building ; but the representative 
one may properly be considered The Royal Exchange, across 
the street by the Bank in London. Not only is it distinguished 
as a centre of the business activity of the empire, but also for 
its age and history. The site was occupied for its existing 
uses through the enterprise of Sir Thomas Gresham, and the 
first Royal, or Gresham's, Exchange was opened by Queen Eliza- 
beth in 1570. His building was destroyed by the Great Fire in 
1666, and a successor, designed by Edward Jerman, was fin- 
ished three years later. The third and existing building, 
designed by Sir William Tite, was opened in 1844 by Queen 
Victoria. It is quadrangular, and has an imposing court sur- 



412 CIVIL BUILDINGS. 

rounded by a massive yet elegant arcade for the convenience of 
the merchants. Towards an open area at the west, it presents 
a portico of eight very large Corinthian columns with a pedi- 
ment containing appropriate sculpture by Westmacott. • 

Designs in classic styles, or based on them, have not only 
been favorites with the business world, especially in England, 
but also with the English political authority, as may be seen on 
the way from that notable group, the Bank, Exchange, and 
Mansion House, to the most important civic building in the 
empire, the representative of its fullest and latest expansion 
and power. This way leads through Whitehall, a broad, grand 
street, along which stand several imposing governmental build- 
ings. There is the noble Banqueting-House (p. 393), — sole evi- 
dence of what the great palace designed by Inigo Jones would 
have been. There are the simpler Horse-Guards ; the Treasury, 
refronted by Sir Charles Barry in 1846-1847, long and impos- 
ing, but far less so than the Treasury at Washington ; the new 
India Offices, far richer than their neighbor ; and, soon to be 
added to this array, the even more elaborate and varied New 
Admiralty and War Offices. These structures, all in what 
might be called modern style, based upon Roman or Renais- 
sance details, form a perhaps unique vista, grand enough for 
the approach to the throne of the empire, contrasted with 
them by a very different style throughout, and by pre-eminent 
position. 

The Houses of Parliament, or the New Palace at Westmin- 
ster, designed by Sir Charles Barry, were begun in 1840 on the 
site of the old palace burned in 1834 ; and although they have 
been occupied for many years, they can hardly be said to be 
yet finished. It was thought best that a native form of the 
Pointed style should be used for an edifice so national in 
character, and the Tudor variety was adopted. The largest 

Note. — The dimensions in feet are, — St. Stephen's Hall, 95 by 30, and 56 
high ; House of Lords, 97 by 45, and 45 high ; Commons, 62 by 45, and 45 high ; 
Royal Gallery, 110 by 45, and 45 high; Westminster Hall, 270 by 68, and 110 
high (Knight says, 239 by 68, and 90 high) ; the Clock Tower, 40 square, and 
314 high ; the Central, 60 diameter, 70 externally, and 266 high ; Victoria, 75 
square (62 except with turrets), and 325 high. 



THE HOUSES OP PARLIAMENT. 413 

building of the world in the Pointed style is the result. Its 
chief front is towards the Thames and 900 feet long, with two 
stories except in a central block, and in six towers or pavil- 
ions that vary the elevation but increase the uniformity. Three 
very lofty towers of different sizes and forms irregularly rise 
above the mass. 

All parts of the exterior are of a pale-buff stone, already 
growing brown, or here and there crumbling on the surface, 
and all are elaborately ornamented with buttresses, mouldings, 
and carvings. The most richly decorated portion of the front- 
ages is on the Peers' side, towards the Abbey, where, at the 
western end, is the enormous and superb Victoria Tower, the 
largest structure of its kind in the world. The chief public 
entrance is eastward by Westminster Hall, the most ancient 
large feature of the Palace, the most interesting part histori- 
cally and even architecturally, and, indeed, the grandest hall 
in the empire. It dates as far back as the reign of William II. 
(Rufus, 1087-1100) ; but it was much altered in that of Rich- 
ard II., between 1397 and 1399, and subsequent changes have 
been made to adapt it to the new buildings for which it now forms 
an immense and impressive vestibule. At present the exterior 
on the west side has been opened to view, after having been 
hidden for a long time by incongruous excrescences, and is to 
be restored. We then can judge how far superior the English 
are to the French in such problems. One of the chief mistakes 
already made in the exterior of the Palace is the lavish use of 
ornament covering the whole surface, overpowering itself by 
profusion, and intensifying the attacks of the damp and acrid 
smoky air. The national style used was, however, well chosen, 
and, notwithstanding adverse criticisms, the mighty structure 
is imposing and magnificent. 

Of the interior, the first and the pre-eminent feature is the 
glorious Hall through which the public enters, — a matchless 
example of mediaeval English forms, with walls blank below 
and pierced by traceried windows in the upper part, bearing a 
wonderful timber roof, a masterpiece of constructive art and 
of appropriate and great elaboration. The cold brown stones 
and darker oak and chestnut wood above them have looked 



414 CIVIL BUILDINGS. 

down often on scenes of the majesty or tragedy of English 
history, and imagination summons there the long succession 
moving on in stately pageantry, — the early parliaments, the 
high courts of the realm, the trials and the condemnation of 
Sir William Wallace (1303), Sir Thomas More (1535), Pro- 
tector Somerset (1551-1552), Lord Strafford (1641), and at 
length Charles I. (1649). Here hung the banners of the Civil 
War, here Cromwell was inaugurated Lord Protector (1653), 
here the seven bishops were acquitted (1688), the three lords 
condemned (1746), and the great spectacle of Warren Hast- 
ings's trial was enacted (1778). Indeed, State trials through six 
centuries, all of historical significance ; royal banquets ending 
with George IV. 's (1820) ; maintenance of the government 
and most momentous changes in it ; business, pleasure, misery, 
injustice, and victorious right, — have filled the grand old Hall 
with impressive scenes and imperishable associations. 

Beyond it, southward, and reached by broad steps, is St. 
Stephen's Hall, a huge vestibule replacing the chapel of the 
ancient palace dedicated to the saint, and burned in 1834. Tall 
tracericd windows nearly fill the upper portion of the walls, 
along the lower part of which are ranged twelve statues of 
men eminent for ability and eloquence shown in the House of 
Commons. A high groined ceiling gives the Hall a grand effect. 
Beneath it is a crypt suggestive of that in the Sainte Cha- 
pelle 1 at Paris, and, like that, restored ; or, rather, this has 
been refinished or rebuilt, for the existing splendor of the 
place perhaps surpasses any of the original decoration. Dark 
shafts of polished Purbeck and other marble, with elaborate 
capitals of like material, bear a low vaulted ceiling that has 
carefully painted ribs, large sculptured bosses, and richly 
colored scrolls on grounds of bright gold. In harmony with 
the brilliancy above, are the pavements of enamelled tiles, and 
the altar and reredos of fine stones and alabaster elaborately 
carved. The Baptismal chapel and its font are examples of 
the jewelry of restoration. 

At the upper end of St. Stephen's Hall is the Central Hall, 
a magnificent octagonal dome, with a lofty ceiling that is a grand 

1 Described in the writer's " Historical Monuments of France," pp. 72, 73. 



THE HOUSES OP PAELIAMENT. 415 

example of the peculiarly rich English groining — it contains 
more than 250 elaborately carved bosses — and that also is a 
demonstration of the adaptability of the Pointed style to a form 
often thought to be only classic or Renaissance. The House 
of Commons, northward, is built more for business than for 
architectural effect, yet it has various good architectural details, 
on which its ornamentation depends, rather than on works of 
art. A noble corridor that extends southward to the House of 
Lords, however, is lined with mural paintings of historical sub- 
jects. The House of Lords is the stateliest or most gorgeous 
room in the Palace. Foreign critics have said hard things 
about it ; yet it is in several w T ays the most sumptuous legisla- 
tive hall of at least modern times. It has the great merit of 
being national in style, material, design, and use ; it is pecu- 
liarly English, even to the native oak which is almost the sole 
material. The ceiling is flat, pannelled, crossed by heavy 
beams, and rich in carving and in color. Lofty traceried win- 
dows, filled with painted glass and occupying the upper part of 
the side walls, admit abundant light. The Peers' seats and 
the galleries are of due elegance, and the throne, English in 
every way, makes a fitting focus to the decoration and signifi- 
cance of everything by its especial 'splendor. At the upper 
end is the Princes' Chamber, and beyond that the Royal Gal- 
lery, a superb hall with historical paintings on the walls, not 
too well lighted or preserved. The display of heraldry in this 
splendid apartment is remarkable. A great number of rooms 
of various sizes are of course provided for the many uses of 
Parliament, some of the most notable of which are the libraries 
along the river front. 

The ancient palace at Westminster, 1 it has been thought, 
existed during the reigns of the later Saxon kings, and was en- 
larged by their earlier Norman successors, chiefly by the great 
Hall of William Rufus, already described, the noblest mediasval 
civil monument existing in England. After many changes, no- 
tably the founding of the chapel, by King Stephen, it is said, 
and the rebuilding by the first three Edwards, parliaments, 

1 See Britton, J. (and E. W. Brayley), The History of the Ancient Palace 
and late Houses of Parliament at Westminster, 48 plates, 4°, London, 1833. 



416 THE BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 

that had already met here under Henry III., had, finally, an 
established place of meeting in the palace. Since the middle 
of the fifteenth century, all the sittings of Parliament, except 
five at Oxford, have been at Westminster. The Commons occu- 
pied various chambers and St. Stephen's Chapel from 1548 until 
it was burned in 1834. The loss of the chapel was the most 
serious then sustained ; that of the room used by the Lords 
was a blessing. The legislation of the country thus associated 
with this site for many hundred years continues in the new 
palace, which has already grown historical, and probably is 
destined to be the scene of many important national events. 

THE BENEVOLENT INSTITUTIONS. 

No class of the many buildings representative of English 
history and character is more expressive of a marked phase 
of the latter than that formed by the numerous and varied 
edifices devoted to the help or improvement of those in need. 
These pages will allow mere mention of a subject that might 
well fill many more, yet brief as this chapter of the English 
chronicle must be here, it should certainly not be omitted. 
While these buildings show less art, less that is outwardly im- 
posing, and are less associated with the stir of public events 
than others already described, the history of the Hospitals for 
the sick, the needy, or the aged, reaches back for many a cent- 
ury, and buildings large or small, ancient or new, for their use 
are scattered through the land, in which they are an honorable 
feature. St. Cross, at Winchester, many centuries old, has been 
described on p. 124. In Coventry there are two examples of 
the ancient Hospital, Bond's, founded in 1506, for old men, and 
Ford's, founded in 1529, originally for aged married couples, but 
subsequently used only for women. The latter is an unusually 
well preserved building, of the sixteenth century, surrounding 
a narrow court and constructed with plaster and timber walls, 
having the woodwork quaintly carved and moulded. As "the 
editor of the Glossary of Architecture " well says (Some Ac- 
count, II. 194), dismissing the subject with a paragraph, the edi- 
fices of this class " would alone afford materials enough for a 



MEMORIAL MONUMENTS. 417 

separate work." They illustrate not only the nature of the in- 
stitutions, but also the Domestic styles of the country " from 
the ' God's House ' at Southampton, of the twelfth century," to 
the time of James I., " including such establishments as the 
hospital at Ewelme, Oxfordshire, and Cheetham's Hospital, 
Manchester." The former was founded about 1446 for old 
men, and the latter (p. 199) in 1653, as a free school for boys. 
In London the Hospitals are, of course, numerous and on a 
great scale. The Middle Ages were well represented in these 
forms of beneficence. St. Bartholomew's, for the sick, dates 
from 1102, but was refounded by Henry VIII. St. Thomas's, 
for alms, originated in 1213-1215, and Bethlehem, for the 
insane, in 1246. Christ's, founded in 1553, is now a school 
that occupies large buildings, chiefly modern. Guy's, for the 
sick and lame, was established early in the eighteenth century. 
Of national Hospitals, Chelsea, for old soldiers, dated from 1681, 
and Greenwich, for disabled sailors, was opened in 1705. One 
of the sights of London is the Foundling Hospital (1739) " for 
exposed and deserted children," who sing in the chapel on Sun- 
days, and afterwards dine in a hall. But the stern manners of 
the officers, the amount of preliminary " grace," the meagre- 
ness of the fare, and the solemnity of the children, make the re- 
past a dismal one, and its frequent repetition must require much 
grace of another sort in the young people. In contrast is the 
interesting and impressive scene when the many beneficiaries 
of these institutions, and of the old schools, appear at the ser- 
vice in St. Paul's, in June, described on p. 145. Nowhere else 
can the world present anything just like that noble spectacle 
of the grandeur, beauty, and long life of English benevolence. 

MEMOKIAL MONUMENTS. 1 

If written in full, one of the longest chapters of England's 
chronicle in stone would be that relating to the personal memo- 
rials which illustrate so much of the people and history of a 
country, and of which an immense number is scattered through 

1 See Camden's Reges, and Dart's Westminster (note, p. 229).— Blore, E., 
Monumental Remains, text and 30 plates, imp. 8°, 1826. — Pettigrew, T. J., 

27 



418 MEMORIAL MONUMENTS. 

her churches, halls, and public grounds. Notwithstanding revo- 
lutions, wars, and changes, she has kept countless works to 
show her arts through centuries, and to tell the story of all 
sorts and conditions of her children. To these she has added 
a moderate number to commemorate events. Perhaps no other 
country, Italy excepted, has a greater store of personal memo- 
rials, especially in cathedrals, where they are impressively 
numerous ; especially if contrasted with the few left in France ; 
and furthermore hardly a church, even in the rural hamlets, is 
without its notable example. In the towns statues of promi- 
nent men are numerous ; but in these works France is a rival. 
Some conception of the monuments in each cathedral, especi- 
ally St. Paul's, and at Westminster Abbey, has already been 
given. Of the immense number in churches and other places 
only a mention of the fact of their existence is possible on 
these pages. Of single works in the open air, one in Hyde 
Park is pre-eminent, rivalled by few in surprising elaboration, 
and dedicated to one of the nation's rarest princes. 

The lofty and splendid Albert Memorial? designed by Sir 
G. G. Scott, is a spire-crowned canopy in Pointed style, more 
Italian than English, profusely decorated with fine colored 
stones, rich gilding and carving, and placed on a broad granite 
base girt with sculpture in white marble, — a work too elabor- 
ate and delicate for exposure in the London air, that has already 
done it much damage. In general outlines the designs sug- 
gest the famous monument of Can Signorio at Verona, and 
the recent one of the Duke of Brunswick at Geneva ; but the 
Memorial is on a far greater scale and much more superb. Of 
course the statue of the Prince, raised high beneath the canopy, 
is the chief and central figure. Only a long description, elab- 
orate colored plates, or, better still, a sight of the monument, 

Collection of Epitaphs in England, 8°, 1864. — Stothard, C. A., the Monumen- 
tal Effigies of Great Britain, 144 plates, imp. folio. Also, Britton, Dart, Murray, 
and others (note p. 112). 

1 See The National Memorial to His Royal Highness The Prince Consort, 
cuts and 24 plates, atlas folio ; J. Murray, London, 1873. (Published at £12,12.) 
The contract, dated April 18, 1864, with John Kelk, was for £85,508 (p. 25), but 
the whole cost is said to have been £120,000. On July 3, 1872, the work was 
first shown to the public. 



LONDON. 419 

can give an adequate conception of its details ; England with 
her wealth and art has honored herself in dedicating both to 
the memory of one who ennobled an exalted station and de- 
served the title given him by acclamation, — Albert the Good. 

The Nelson Column, in Trafalgar Square, placed even more 
commandingly, is in its style and size worthy of imperial 
Rome. While it well shows the admiration and appreciation 
that the country had, and has, of one of its victorious heroes, 
a peculiar effect is given by an English statement, 1 that in 
defraying the cost, the Emperor of Russia was the largest sub- 
scriber. The York Column, the Crimean monument, and the 
renewed Eleanor, or Charing, Cross, all near by, and in differ- 
ing styles, although smaller, have their various interest and 
significance. Statues of the sovereigns and of great men are 
scattered, not too profusely, through the enormous city, as they 
also are throughout the country. 

Of memorials of events, the most notable is The Monument, 
near London Bridge, a Doric column upon a base with a total 
height of 202 feet, designed by Sir Christopher Wren and fin- 
ished in 1677. It stands .202 feet from the site of the house 
where the Great Fire began, September 2, 1666. 

LONDON. 2 

The world of London is, after all, the most significant monu- 
ment of England ; for the mighty city is the world concen- 
trated, where something of the forces and products of the wide 

1 London, by Peter Cunningham, F. S. A., p. 256. 

2 Only an index of what is in itself a library could give a full reference to 
the books, maps, and plates illustrative of London. In Lowndes's Manual 
(1864), pp. 1385-94, is a list of 205 works (nearly 300 volumes), and references 
to a great number of maps and engravings. For general purposes in history, see 
Knight, C, London (649 cuts), 6 vols. roy. 8°, 1841-44; Maitland, W. (128 
pi.), 2 vols, folio, 1775; Malcolm, J. P., Customs, 5 vols. 8°, 1810-11; Pen- 
nant, T., Account, 1790, etc. ; Partington, C. F., 8°, 1837 ; Wilkinson, R., 
Londina Illustrata, 207 pi. old buildings, 2 vols, folio, 1819; Low, S., Jr., 
Charities, 16°, 1862 ; Bkitton, J., Churches, 8°, 1839 ; Ltsons, D., Environs, 5 
vols. roy. 4°, 1811 ; Timbs, J., Club Life, 1866, Curiosities, 1868, Romance, 1865, 
in all 7 vols. 8° ; Cunningham, P., Past and Present, 8° (also his Handbook) ; 
Dickens, C, Dictionary, 1878 (yearly since), — see notes, p. 73, Tower; p. 139, 
St. Paul's ; p. 229, Abbey. 



420 LONDON. 

earth and of a hundred generations of its people can be found ; 
and the enormous group to which the familiar name is given 
is the most impressive evidence of the growth of every form of 
the national power. While not even a general sketch of the 
metropolis can be attempted here, descriptions of its chief his- 
toric structures are placed in their order in these pages. 

Roman London with its civilization can be conceived, and 
not imperfectly, by the help of nothing more than the mosaic 
pavements mentioned on p. 432. The Norman Conquest, the 
military life of the Middle Ages, and a great deal that has fol- 
lowed them are strikingly illustrated in the Tower (pp. 73-84). 
At Westminster Abbey (pp. 229-244) it is shown how religion 
and the best mediaeval art were cherished near the capital, and 
how a national epic in stone has been, and is, growing on there 
through the ages, with a stately and fitting companion in the 
newer St. Paul's (pp. 139-145). With these grander shrines 
of faith are associated its parochial seats, like the churches 
designed by Wren (p. 290), and St. Mary's in the Temple 
(p. 405). If royalty has few adequate memorials in this king- 
dom of a thousand years, its chief monuments — two of which 
are very remarkable — are practically in London, so near in 
time are they at Windsor (pp. 84-94) and Hampton Court 
(p. 393), where the arts and associations of centuries are 
gathered. In London, also, are the chief modern palaces 
already mentioned (pp. 399-401), as well as many residences 
of the nobility, few of which can be called old, and to which 
only allusion can be made here. Travelling ' is now so easy 
that several of the ancient castles and seats can be visited 
from London, as is also the case with four of the cathedrals. 2 

The insatiable requirements of a rapidly increasing popula- 
tion, for a long while enormous, have swept away so many 
objects great and small that the ancient metropolis now seems 
to be modern ; but even a limited amount of search will still lead 

1 At a little over an hour's ride by rail are Colchester Castle (p. 69), by the 
Great Eastern line ; Rochester (p. 117) by the Southeastern ; Knole (p. 360) 
and Penshurst (p. 355, from Tunbridge Wells) by the same line; Audley End 
(p. 372) and Hatfield (p. 375) by the Great Northern. 

2 Rochester (p. 117) ; St. Albans (p. 145) ; Peterborough (p. 149) ; and Ely 
(p. 153). 



LONDON. 421 

to a great deal of interesting annotation or illustration of the 
chronicle in stone, or in brick as London is apt to vary it. 
Comparatively little there may be relating to any one class, 
even of the literary, for which London has been peculiarly a 
home ; but in the aggregate incalculably much about the whole 
English people, their growth or change, their present, and indi- 
cations of their future. While the past has perpetually yielded 
to the ever-coming present, leaving scarcely more than frag- 
ments of its visible works, even of mediaeval churches, 1 apt in 
Europe to be the most permanent, modern times, as they sur- 
pass all others in results, are, as naturally, most abundantly 
illustrated. The fresh, full, active power of the living people 
of the Imperial Island marks London of to-day. Besides the 
miles of its streets, busy or crowded, quiet or sleepy, noble or 
squalid, — for the variety of the world is in them, from greatest 
and best to meanest and worst, — the public life and thought 
of the empire is concentrated there, and with striking expres- 
siveness. Modern art, of many schools as well as English, is 
represented by the National Gallery (p. 408) ; Literature and 
Ancient art at the British Museum (p. 409) ; Business power 
such as imperial Rome never dreamed of, by the Bank (p. 408) 
and the Royal Exchange (p. 411) ; Benevolence in many a 
grand institution (p. 416) ; recognition of public services and 
high stations nobly filled in Memorials (p. 417) ; and the three 
estates of the realm at Westminster (p. 412). 

These condensed descriptions of the most marked historic 
features of the imperial metropolis are all that these pages can 
contain. Prominent in the earlier ages, pre-eminent in the 
later, centre of influence through all, the mere mention of 
the enormous fact of London must be here sufficient, — a fact 
which with all its meaning is the condensation of a chapter 
like a volume. Only acquaintance made in busy weeks of 

1 The Great Fire (1666) is by no means wholly the cause, for it must be 
owned that, with the exception of the Abbey and Westminster Hall, London has 
not distinguished itself by preservation of early works which it contained. St. 
Bartholomew the Great, for instance, " one of the finest among the very few 
Mediaeval churches remaining in the city," says The Builder (March 28, 1885), 
" has had for centuries, and still has, a fringe manufactory overhanging the sanct- 
uary and occupying the actual walls of the Lady- Chapel ; a boys' school occupying the 
north triforium ; and a blacksmith' s forge the site of the north transept." 



422 THE SIMPLE HOMES OF ENGLAND. 

several visits can enable any one to realize how, and to what, 
this creation of the English ages has grown. All the history 
of the country leads to it, and through it, so that this short 
chapter, brief suggestion as it is, in a word makes a fitting con- 
clusion, with one exception, to this chronicle of England. 



THE SIMPLE HOMES OF ENGLAND. 

Growing and existing at the same time with the castles, 
palaces, and great residences, often less enduring, often as 
permanent, were the houses of the people, the homes of the 
mass of the nation. Commonly less notable in the arts and 
in history, they are yet full of attractive illustration of the 
popular life changing in fashion with the times, but far less 
than at the great houses, and through many generations almost 
as unvarying in its domestic feeling as is human nature itself. 
In countless thousands over the land stand these homes, springs 
from which the broad current of national force and progress 
has drawn its supply ; or likened in another way, moulds in 
which a great deal of the English character has been shaped. 

The older houses are very apt to be quaint or picturesque. 
Materials at hand and limited means have of course had much 
influence on the form and style ; but an inborn sense of what is 
pretty and effective seems to have guided the hands of the 
builders through many generations. In the northwest and in 
Derbyshire and Cornwall, as in Wales, the abundance of gray 
stone readily broken is a reason why the walls there were 
strong, but usually rude and sombre. In Lancashire, Cheshire, 
and the neighboring regions, oak, once plenty, suggested a 
style, and supplied ready material for frames, between the 
timbers of which bricks plastered were used, making some of 
the most picturesque old houses for the commons as well as 
the gentry. Nowhere were t^iere any of the buildings entirely 
wooden, so frequently seen in Norway and America. In Lon- 
don and in the large towns, and also in some rural parts of the 
country, red or dull-grayish bricks were used in profusion. The 
smaller buildings constructed of them are often very plain, 



CONCLUSION. 423 

but the older were seldom without at least quaintness. More 
recent domestic buildings, on the other hand, are apt to be 
so plain that some persons might call them ugly. Thatched 
roofs were formerly very common; but now, in most places, 
serviceable and less picturesque slates are substituted. Flower- 
ing-plants and vines are favorites, as they have been for a long 
while, giving grace or color, the more noticeable by contrast 
with surrounding things, and seldom wanting even in very 
modest dwellings. In the crowded rows of tenements filling 
the new suburbs of large towns they help to preserve a feature 
of the genuine old English cottage, which, like the old rural 
lane or footpath, is so characteristic of the country, and often 
charming, although simple. 

Out of these homes of the commons has come many a man 
who has helped to make England good, strong, or famous, and 
only a chapter long as a book could tell of the houses where 
they have lived. It will be in the training found in these 
homes, quite as much as in that gained in the churches and 
schools, that the future of England will be determined. 



CONCLUSION. 

Outlines of chapters, like the last three, made such by the 
limits of these pages, help to suggest the crowded fulness of 
England in works illustrating the history of her people, and 
that although more and more of them, old and new, claim the 
attention, we must somewhere turn from her stone chronicle. 
Thoughts in abundance present themselves when we leave it ; 
few, however, of the writer's will be given, yet one or two must 
be expressed. 

First of all is the importance of the preservation of these 
works. They are priceless to England, and precious to the 
people spread around the world and speaking her language. 
Changes throughout the country are growing more positive and 
evident. The real or supposed needs of increasing trade and 
population crowd upon the rural districts and transform the 
towns, so that the temptation to injure or destroy the old land- 



424 CONCLUSION. 

marks is constant. But once lost to the country, no power can 
ever replace them. Hedges and daisies, fine turf and old trees, 
are not fresh again where the cinders and smoke of the mill or 
the colliery have taken their places ; and even far more im- 
probable would be the regaining of any part, however humble, 
of the long stone chronicle of the English people. They, of 
all ranks, have made it, have paid for it also with their best 
thoughts, their treasure, their heart-throbs, and even their 
blood. No reproduction can ever give ages to come a hint 
of that record when once it is lost ; and if this thought needs 
help, surely, wise men are apt to take care of what they have 
earned and still hold ; and a great cost is not got back by de- 
stroying the property. It may seem as if one who lives far 
away need not urge that a people spend means and labor to 
save their old stones ; but England with all she is has grown to 
exist not for herself alone. If care and expense be her lot with 
her treasures, she holds the old homestead, and with a fair for- 
tune. Hers is the roof-tree, the hearthstone, the hall with the 
portraits ; and from the wide world the cousins, sometimes much 
removed it may be, do turn as only a touch of kindred can 
make them, glad, and perhaps a bit proud, that the old line 
has still the old place. They would be sorry to see it ill kept ; 
they like to see it so fine, as it is. 

In all lands there is a symbol to gather the people as never 
did any fiery cross in the grand misty Highlands of the wild 
North, and England has one now ten centuries old. When the 
flag that means all the immense deal that the country is stands 
in danger or need, we have known how all men who own it, for- 
getting everything about which they differ, will rally to save or 
defend it. Peer or ploughman, Tory or Whig, has one thought 
in common, and not very mildly asserted. More important by 
far than some calls have been to stand by that flag, is the call 
to the earnest defence of the beauty and treasures of the Eng- 
lish-speaking world's fair old home. Dislikes or beliefs, faiths 
or politics, well may stay back at times while a work for the 
honor of the grand ancient realm is taken in hand, and a good 
cause in common makes all sorts of people feel they are one 
large family after all, feel glad they have met in one common 



CONCLUSION. 425 

cause, and for the work that they then do, for it adds to the 
glory, and more than that, to the moral power of Old England. 1 
Some work like this has been tried by the nation, although 
little enough ; much more has been done by the Church, and 
by those who hold Castles and Halls ; and towns are here 
and there adding their efforts. But after saying this much, 
strangers should perhaps not be too forward in pointing out 
ways of action, and simply offer good wishes along with their 
earnest appeal. Yet a stop to further needless destruction, 
and an effort for more systematic and general preservation, 
may be pardonably mentioned and urged. Plans and methods 
are properly left to the living owners of the treasures to be 
saved, who are fully able, as the world knows, to manage their 
own affairs ; and certainly a person whose country can teach 
little by example should be modest in offering advice. For 
these reasons the writer has had little to say except in praise 
about late restorations, many of which have been described on 

1 Ari3 T one who will give time, labor, and something more, can find work to 
do, or can help to save what is worth saving. In the writer's native town there 
is not a building that can be called ancient, and little art except in a few private 
hands. But there was the unprinted record kept by the ministers, liable to perish. 
Two hundred years of this he copied with his own hand, and of about three 
quarters of the matter he has carefully read the proof, the result appearing in 
the N. E. Historic-Genealogical Register, vols. xxiv. to xxxiii., and, with a con- 
siderable addition, in a large quarto volume (63 copies), — "Records of the First 
Church, Charlestown, 10-32-1789," — which he prepared for distribution to his- 
torical libraries. A portion never yet printed may some time follow the latter. 
Another undertaking has been to collect the titles of every book and pamphlet 
related to the town and its natives or residents, resulting in his " Bibliography of 
Charlestown and Bunker Hill." As no bibliography was ever born, like Minerva, 
but must grow like most things on earth, so more remains to be done here, and 
more material is accumulating. Any one who attempts a local work of this sort 
will probably be surprised by the amount of labor it involves, by the number of 
articles found, and by the obscurity into which most of them have fallen. Not 
even the early works described in this book impress one more with the changes 
in human things than do the hundreds of literary works, often small indeed, 
which will thus be examined and recorded. But to some extent a chart of the 
intellectual history of the place is formed, and not an article should be allowed 
to escape attention. When the products of two centuries and a half of time are 
explored, as in this case, a result of some value is attained. In every old place 
it would be well that some one should make a similar list ; and if such a one 
attempts to gather copies of the articles, he will find the pursuit near enough 
impossible to be interesting, and another result that proves how much can be 
done by patient labor, which is none the less worth doing since it is the unpaid, 
and perhaps obscure, labor of love of a literary Old Mortality. 



426 CONCLUSION. 

the foregoing pages. A great deal of discussion and difference 
of opinion, along with some not exactly sweet and amiable dis- 
course, have arisen on the subject, about which it is perhaps 
enough to say here that some admirable work has been done, 
and plenty of opportunity for more is left, and also, as is the 
case in France, much more good than evil has resulted. 1 

Affairs of the present, and those that seem possible in the 
future, and that might transform the country itself, and not 
merely buildings, tempt one to write as well as to think about 
their effect on the preservation of the stone chronicle ; but, 
like the subject of restoration, they belong to the people who hold 
the land and who must solve the problems it produces. With 
the prudent wisdom of former times working under a constant 
providence " that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we 
will," there is more room for hope than for fear. 

In this railway age the train gives a plain hint of what is 
needed for safety. While modern progress cannot be stopped 
by old charms and usages, and must have engineers to keep up 
its onward speed, there must also be the guard at the break, 
although he is a man who has taken his father's place, for his 
care will surely some time save the train from harm or wreck. If 
he does not supply the moving power, he is not the less needed, 
and it will be a day of peril when he is thrown from the train. 

While we turn from the chronicle, another thought is sug- 
gested by changes which have occurred in the last twenty or 
thirty years, and which may be followed by greater. It is that 

1 Religious opinion or training, as well as politics, need not, or should not, 
keep one from enjoyment and admiration of the stone chronicle, or hearty desire 
for its preservation, especially its noblest parts, the cathedrals. The writer, with 
cordial admiration for those priceless monuments, and earnest hope for their 
security, is not an Episcopalian, but, it may be added, has spent a good deal of 
time and labor, and given other help, towards the maintenance of one of the 
oldest Puritan churches in America, which has not changed its faith, and of 
which some of his ancestors, in unbroken line, have been members from the be- 
ginning. It is the oldest institution in his native town, and intimately connected 
with the planting of Christianity and civilization, not only there, but on the 
shores of Massachusetts Bay. He is glad that he has done what he has, and 
cordially sympathizes with like efforts, on a much greater scale, that have similar 
and far earlier associations both for Englishmen and for all English-speaking 
people. 



conclusion. 427 

we can be glad that we live when we have seen, or can see, so 
much of the unaltered Old England. 

From the clear light of the brilliant present, far back along 
the vista of the dimming past till lost in the shades of the 
Druid's forests, we still find her long line of monuments, 
reaching through the peaceful vale or the smoke of conflicts, 
yet always true and attractive, forming a record that, again be 
it said, can never be reproduced ; and as we follow its stone 
pages where they lie opened to us, we find every line, like 
every chapter, still distinct. The gray giants unbowed by time 
at Stonehenge hold their own deep mysteries, but all else dis- 
closes, as nothing else can, part by part the story of England, 
of her people, and of all those who speak her tongue. 

With hoary heads uncovered to the storms, and bodies 
bruised yet strongly knit as crags that front the sea, the Roman 
forts stand on the shore, or where slow time has left them far 
from it ; and on the mist-swept crests of the distant northern 
heights the wrecked outer wall of ancient empire stretches, all 
bulwarks for four centuries of law and art and power as best 
the world then knew them, and as first the Imperial Island 
learned them. Scattered throughout the land and hiding in 
nooks are the rude fragments of six centuries more of the 
unskilled handiwork of the ancestors of men who were to out- 
rival those of the Eternal city, — scraps and relics of many a 
year of what seemed small things and a direful, hopeless dis- 
order, but of a period when a new earth was forming for a new 
race that was growing, almost every scrap and relic part of 
Something made to serve the faith that was to spread the 
Sermon on the Mount around the world and drive forever from 
it the pantheon of Olympus. 

Boldly defiant — on rocky ledges strong as their base, or 
moated on plains, and seemingly made as lasting as the un- 
dying turf spread around them — rise the huge Norman keeps, 
still looking out in their own lordly way far over the land their 
builders won and long held. Signs they are of a tyranny such 
as can be now only dreamed of (for it is harmless enough now 
in its old guise, dead if the demon could not sleep and change), 
and proofs like no others we can now see of what England was 



428 CONCLUSION. 

and of what she has grown to be. No horsemen in hauberks 
of chain-mail ride with their lances out from the portals to 
harry the land ; they are almost undreamed of phantoms now ; 
but in their place there is, very likely, a picnic party with 
knives, forks, and lunch. 

Strong means of stern times helped to finish and join the 
people fused, welded, and knit through the fires and struggles 
of nearly seven hundred years. The race was formed; the 
kingdom of England was made. Then all the island was to 
become the seat of one power. The tower-studded chain was 
drawn around the craggy shores and the mountain-heights of 
Wales ; the castles were set on the wild northern border, and 
in time, after great trials, the land was the home of one strong 
nation ; and every part of its growth is shown by the stone 
chronicle. 

Wars of dynasties also came, also to be followed by in- 
creased strength and security, and more assured peace. Mean- 
while, as for a thousand years, the ancient Church watched the 
people, and from humble shelter had grown to princely estate, 
spreading exquisite art through the land along with its doc- 
trine, so that from scarcely a spot with a wide view anywhere 
south of the Scottish border cannot be seen a spire, roof, or 
tower telling of her presence. Though Hilda's noble abbey is 
crumbling in ruin, 1 Etheldreda's 2 church stands in full beauty ; 
the shrine of England's first martyr, 3 the crypt of St. Wilfrid, 4 
and the gravestone of Bede, 5 are sacredly kept, and the Martyrs' 
Memorial 6 rises with its great lesson at Oxford. Chaucer, 7 
Spenser, 7 Shakespeare, 8 Bacon, 9 and many another one who has 
helped to make English literature immortal, lie near her altars, 
as do Hampden, 10 Wilberforce, 11 and those who made her free, 
along with her sovereigns, 12 statesmen, 13 and warriors. 14 Strange 
indeed would be the English heart that could endanger the last 
earthly resting-places of all these in her churches ! 

The Reformation came, deeply marked on the noblest struc- 
tures in the country as well as by its great changes, and the 

i See p. 263. 2 p. 158. 8 pp. 44, 148. * p. 213. 5 p . 224. 

« p.. 343. 7 p . 235. 8 p . 299. 9 p . 147. 10 p . 291. 

u p. 238. u pp. 93, 233-35, 241. 1 3 p. 238. w pp. 143, 238. 



CONCLUSION. 429 

modern England, its still greater monument. Splendid as the 
light and color that glow in the east, is the halo imagination, 
and fact, spread around the morning of that long era which we 
know in noonday. A queen who understood well, at least, how 
to summon the able, the trusty, or brilliant, to serve her and 
her country, held her stately court forty years. Heaven added 
its blessing, and showed how it helps stout hearts ready to help 
themselves. Still grand old galleries stand where in silks, 
velvet, and jewels, the lords and the ladies talked joyfully over 
the rout of the great Armada ; still green are the oaks and the 
turf where the commons did like them ; still used are the 
churches where God was thanked for England's defence. 

If the later morning was not as splendid, it was the time 1 of 
labors by which the English-speaking race began to spread 
world-wide, when men like those at Scrooby, or the Earl of 
Southampton and others, laid the foundations of the " Greater 
England " over the sea, and the graves of those of them laid in 
the old island must remain unharmed while real civilization 
lasts there. Halls of the statesmen, from their time to this, 
who have shaped the vast fabric of the existing empire, cer- 
tainly also should be kept safe as long. In their homes or haunts 
the great work was thought out ; and these halls re-echoed 
applause when it was first heard for Blenheim, for Plassey, 
Quebec, Trafalgar, and Waterloo. While faithfulness also is 
held a virtue in England, should the ivy-draped walls of Col- 
chester 2 and Raglan 3 be saved. 

Every phase of the national history is, indeed, still shown 
by visible works ; stately as those of Elizabeth's age ; simple 
as those of the country churchyard (p. 297) ; imposing as those 
where yet linger the echoes of the old courtly life and its most 
joyful hours ; stern and pathetic as is the room in the Tower 
(p. 82) where some of England's best hearts were wrung in the 
struggles that have made her strong and free. The home-land 
of the great race has all these to guard and to cherish ; and 
we who live far away from it, as we turn to leave it, can at 
least offer cordial good wishes, and express earnest hope, while 
we speak our last word in parting. 

» See p. 371. a p. 72. 8 p. 313. 



430 CONCLUSION. 

One word older than the time when civilized men first came 
into England shows, by the use made of it, how her people have 
changed, tells the best they have gained, and, it may be, the 
height of her glory. It sounded the earliest triumph of Rome 
on her shores ; it stands for her thousand years of majesty ; it 
will never die in the countless years of the future. Great works 
of her arts will long bear it, yet far longer will it last to mean 
the sum of all she has reached to our time, and no word is 
fitter to be the last one we read on her stone chronicle. 

When on conquered fields, in pageants that followed, or 
sports of the vast amphitheatre, the cry of triumph resounded 
from Latin tongues, that word re-echoed ; it was the best word 
the Roman world knew. Fresh as in the earliest days, and 
spoken by millions then never dreamed of ; familiar, yet held 
in cordial respect, that word now follows the drum-beat heard 
round the earth through the empire on which the sun never 
sets, and, better by far, goes with the prayer at thousands of 
altars of the faith that shall conquer all things. The flag of a 
thousand years means not more glory. No longer now a mere 
shout after conflict and bloodshed, it is the name of the wife, 
mother, sovereign lady, pattern of old English virtues, in per- 
son all England's majesty, strong with the loyal regard of the 
vast empire that has its throne on the Imperial Island, winning 
hearts through respect for her where even her armies cannot 
conquer. 

Men will hold her name in honor through finite time ; and 
when the prayer that has risen from every part of our earth is 
answered, when the saint at the gate shall open the way, and 
the voices beyond sing their welcome, in harmonies none of us 
can conceive, still will ring on that word 

Victoria ! 




ti/lijh JIi/,:t dP.J-t .-_ onetkyne 



NOTES. 



I. — BIBLIOGRAPHICAL. 

The necessity for abridgment, which has limited notes in the latter 
part of this book, makes the writer omit a long list of County Histories 
which he has prepared for his own use. These works, most of them 
scarce, contain a vast amount of information and might be classed as 
greater and minor. A full and good collection, including the former and 
some of the latter, would consist of about 165 volumes, dating from 1656 
(Dugdale's Warwick), to the present time, containing many hundreds of 
plates (see note to list of Illustrations), and costing now from £820 to £870. 
The Boston Public Library, through the wisdom and generosity of the late 
Joshua Bates of London, has such a collection, said to be the best in America. 

Another even longer list of local works must also be omitted for the same 
reason, and for one given in the Introduction. 

II. — ANCIENT BRITISH MONUMENTS. 

This is taken (in full) from the " Ancient Monuments Protection Act, 
1882 [45 & 46 Vict. ch. 73] . The Schedule. List of Ancient Monuments 
to which the Act applies. England and Wales." 

Anglesea. The tumulus and dolmen, Plas Newydd, Llandedwen Parish. 

Berkshire. The tumulus known as Wayland Smith's Forge, Ashbury ; 
and Uffington Castle, Uffington. 

Cumberland. The stone circle known as Long Meg and her Daughters, 
near Penrith, Addingham; The stone circle on Castle Rigg, near Keswick, 
Crosthwaite; The stone circles on Burn Moor, St. Bees. 

Derbyshire. The stone circle known as The Nine Ladies, Stanton 
Moor; The tumulus known as Arborlow; Hob Hurst's House and Hut, 
Bastow Moor [all in], Bakewell; Minning Low, Brassington. 

Glamorgan. Arthur's Quoit, Gower, Llanridian Parish. 

Gloucester. The tumulus at Uley, Uley. 

Kent. Kits Coty House, Aylesford. 

Northampton. Danes Camp, Hardingstone; Castle Dykes, Farthingston. 

Oxford. The Rollrich Stones, Little Rollright. 

Pembroke. The Pentre Evan Cromlech, Nevern. 

Somerset. The ancient stones at Stanton Drew ; The chambered 
tumulus at Stoney Littleton, Wellow; Cadbury Castle, South Cadbury. 

Westmoreland. Mayborough, near Penrith ; Arthur's Round Table, 
Penrith [both in] Barton Parish. 

Wiltshire. The group of stones known as Stonehenge, and Old Sarum, 
Amesbury; The vallum at Abury, the Sarcen stones within the same, 
those along the Kennet Road, and the group between Abury and Beck- 
hampton, and Silbury Hill, Abury; The long barrow at West Kennet, near 
Marlborough ; The dolmen (Devil's Den), near Marlborough, Fyfield 
Parish ; Barbury Castle, Ogbourne, St. Andrews, and Swindon. 



432 NOTES. 

[See also. Smith, Rev. A. C-, The British and Roman Antiquities on the 
N. Wiltshire Downs (100 sq. miles around Abury), 4°, maps and cuts, new 
ed.. 1885. Warne. C Celtic Tumuli of Dorset, fciio,lS66. Higgins, G., The 
Celtic Druids, 4°, London, 1S27. Also notes in this book, pp. 16, 17, 19.] 

m. — ROMAN MOSAIC PAVEMENTS. 

Some of the best works of Roman art found in England are those mentioned 
below, discovered, most of them accidentally, in the places and years named. 
Some of the mosaics were damaged when found, and many have been sub- 
sequently injured or destroyed, as we are informed by dismal accounts in 
numerous English books. Sizes are given in feet, and authorities with 
accounts or plates are added in parentheses. Lysons refers to his great folios 
(note, pp. 42-43); Arch., to the Arehseologia of the Soc. of Antiquaries, 
London; and Vet. Mon., to their " Vetusta Monumenta," Imp. folio, about 
400 large plates, 1747 to the present time. 

Berks. Basildon. Two found injured and then broken up (Arch., 
xxviii. 447). 

Bucks. High Wycombe. One figured; in Lord Shelbourne's grounds, 
1722 ; destroyed (Langley's Hist. Desboro', 29). One 9x9, in 1774 
(Lewis, iv. 657). 

Cheshire. Chester. One 5x5, coarse, 1803, in Xun's garden, near the 
castle. Except in Chester, few remains in this Co. (Lysons, Mag. Brit.). 

Dorset. Dorchester, part of one 10 X 4i, simple, about 1S09, but part 
is covered by the gaol (Arch., xvii. 330). A fragment of a large one, 1725 
(engraved in Hutchins' Dorset, i. 383). Frampton, 20 X 30, very rich, 
1704-6 (Lysons). (27 X 20, one third destroyed when found. Britton's 
Dorset.) 

Essex. Aldersbrool: 16 X 20, with figure of a man, 1735 (P. B., v. 468). 
Colchester. A corner of a square, about 6 X 9, in 1763 (Morant's Essex, i. 
1S1). Two. about 1769 (one was about 9 X 16). (Arch., ii. 286.) One, 
22x17. in 1793 (Vet. Mon., iii. pi. 39). Ipsicich. 1S54, now in the 
museum there. Mersey Island. Several described by Dr. C. Mortimer 
(P. B.. v. 324). Pddgwell. Found nearly entire. 9 X 60, in 1794. 

Gloucester. Barton Farm, Cirencester. Orpheus taming brutes (Aker- 
man). Cirencester. A fine one, 1723. One 16 or 18 sq., checkered. 1777, 
soon destroyed (P. B., v. 595. 599). Rodmarton. One, 1636 (P. B., v. 592). 
Woodchester. One 48 ft. 10 in. sq., with figures and a very elaborate and 
fine design in geometrical patterns, thought by Lysons superior to any other 
found in England. It was in a very large building which contained about 
70 rooms or galleries, and 9 or 10 other mosaic pavements (Lysons). 

Hampshire. Bramdean, two very fine with figures, covered by a build- 
in2r. Crondall one. square, ornamented, inferior to last. Silchester (p. 46), 
chiefly since 1860; one of tiles 16 sq., one mosaic, with an urn and geomet- 
rical ornaments, removed to Stratfieldsaye House (Arch., xl. 403, xlvi. 329- 
65). Truxton, 1S23, a small one. circle in a square with a Bacchus, etc.; 
covered with a building by the owner, Mr. Noyea (Arch., xxii. 49). 

Hereford. Bishopstone, 1829 or before, near the Roman Magna Castra, 
or Kenchester (Arch., xxxiii. 417). 



NOTES. 433 

Herts. Box Moor. In relics of a villa {Arch., xxxiv. 396). 

Kent. Canterbury. 1739, one carelessly broken up (P. B., viii. 755). 
1868, one tessellated, and one of tiles (Arch., xliii. 155). Lullingstane, part 
of one. Reculver, fragments (both P. B., viii.). 

Lancashire. Ocerborough. Remains. 

Leicester. Leicester. 1675, one with animals and "two human fig- 
ures;" 1754, pieces of three others; 1782, another fragment; 1832(?) one 
very elegant, owned by the town. Rothley, 1722, one (P. B., ix.). 

Lincoln. Denton. 1727, one geometrical, and part of another 8 sq., 
both engraved by Fowler (note p. 43). Horkstow, 1796, three very rich, 
one 23 sq., another larger and partly preserved (Lysons). Lincoln. One 
in the area of the cloisters (p. 162). Littleborough. Fragments. Scampton. 
In a villa 13; the only one perfect engraved by Fowler. Roxby, one; 
and Winterton, three, rich, in 1747 (Vet. Mon., ii. pi. 9). 

Middlesex. Roman works are found in London from 8 to 19 ft. below 
the present surface over an area from Northumberland Alley and Fen- 
church St., E., to Paternoster Row, W. (by St. Paul's), but very few of 
them have been made known, or not destroyed (List by W. Tite, Arch., 
1863, v. 39, 491). In 1681, a mosaic was found in Holborn, near St. 
Andrew's Church, and another in Canning St.. near Bush Lane. — 1707, a 
pavement of brick, 10 ft. wide and over 60 ft. long, in Bishopsgate St. Within. 
— 1785-6, one of brick, of uncertain length, but 20 ft. E. to ^Y., in Lom- 
bard St. — 1787, a fragment in Crutched Friars. — 1792, a circular one in 
Old Broad St. — 1803, in Leadenhall St., one injured, more than 20 ft. sq., 
figures and ornaments, engraved by Fisher, afterwards most of it was 
destroyed. — 1S05, at the S. W. angle of the Bank, one about 11 ft. sq., 
12 ft. below the street, preserved in the British Museum. — 1836, part of 
one that had been about 5 X 40 ft., at Crosby Sq. , Bishopsgate St. — 1841, 
two in Threadneedle St., under French Protestant Church, one was 6x5 ft., 
the other about 13+ ft. sq. (see xxxix. 400) ; both are in the British Mu- 
seum. — 1854, under the Excise Office, near Bishopsgate St., 28 ft. sq., 
geometrical design badly broken (see xxxvi. 203), preserved at Svdenham. 
— 1S58, in Fenchurch St., remains of a fine narrow pavement now in 
British Museum. — 1863, a coarse pavement in Leadenhall St., and 1864, 
a part of an ornamented one, now in British Museum. — See J. E. Price, 
4°, 1870, account of one found in Bucklersbury. 

MoxMOLin. Caerleon. 1755, one perfect ; 1692, a fine one with figures 
(destroyed?). Most of the Roman objects found in this once large city 
have been removed. At St. Julians and Penros, near by, were found pave- 
ments. Caerwent, one in 1777, measuring 21| X 18£, with ornaments and 
circles. It was covered with a stone building by the owner, Mr. Lewis 
(Arch., vii. 410; plate, do. xxxvi. 428), and was one of the best of seven 
found to Dec, 1855, most of which were fragments (Arch., xxxvi. 425). 

Northampton. Chester, Fragments. Cotterstock, one near, found 1736 
(Vet. Mon., i. 48). Weldon, 1738, four of geometrical design, one of them 
97 X 10 (Lysons). 

Notts. Pleasley (near), 1786, one, elegant, in a villa, covered by a house 
for it (Arch., viii.). 

Oxford. North Leigh, one 35 X 20 ft. with figures, 1713, but soon 

28 



434 NOTES. 

destroyed. In 1780, and 1813-16, there were other discoveries; in 1815 
(Lewis) a large villa with one gallery 170 X 10, and another 1S4 X 10, 
also baths, coins, and (1815) a pavement, 22 X 28 (Arch., xxxvii. 434). 
Stunsfield (2 m. N. W. of Woodstock), 1712, one 35x20 engraved in 
Leland's Itinerary, viii. Watlington, Beaconsfield farm, eng. in Beesley's 
Oxfordshire. 

Somerset. Combe St. Nicholas, 1800, one geometrical (Lysons). Pitney, 
villa with good pavements (Murray). Wellow, 1737, three (Vet. Mon.. i. 
50-52). 

Surrey. Worplesdon, 1829, broken, of a building 62x23; removed 
(Arch., xxiii. 39S). 

Sussex. Bignor (p. 43), several (Arch., xviii. 203; xix. 176; Lysons; 
and Dallaway's Sussex, ii. pt. 1). 

Wilts. Bromham, 1810, or earlier, one, square; Pitt Mead, near War- 
minster, 1785-1800, four (of which two were soon broken) ; Budge, near 
Froxfield, one, square, destroyed; Littlecote, 1730, two, one was 41 X 28, 
and was the largest and finest that had yet been found in Great Britain, 
but both were destroyed. (These eight are illustrated and described in 
Hoare's Ancient Wilts.) Those at Littlecote had figures and geometrical 
patterns (Lysons). Steeple Ashton, one? (Plot's Oxfordshire). West Dean, 
1741, part of one. 

York. Aldborough, several (pp. 46-48). 



IV. — SAXON WORK. 

This list of churches of which parts are thought to show Saxon work is 
from the Glossary of Architecture, 3 vols. 8°, 5th ed., Parker, Oxford, 1850, 
vol. i. p. 410, rearranged geographically, with notes added in brackets. 
Churches marked with a star (*) are described by Hickman. 

Nor. = Norman. E. E. = Early English Pointed. D. = Decorated. 
P. = Perpendicular. 

Southern Part of England (east to west). — Kent. Dover, the ruined 
chh. in the Castle [see p. 66]. — Sicanscombe, tower [chh. E. E.]. 

Surrey. Albury, church [E. E. Two pillars are supposed to be 
Roman.] — * Stoke d'Abernon, some portions. 

Berkshire. Cholsey, tower [part of chh. Nor.] — Wickham, tower. 

Hampshire. Boarhunt [E. E.]— Corhampton, church [very early and 
curious]. — Headbourne Worthy. — Hinton Ampner. — Little Sombourn. — Kil- 
meston, church. — Tichborne. 

Wiltshire. *North Burcombe, east end. — *Brytford, north and south 
doors (now stopped). — Bremhill, west end [very early tower.] — Somer/ord 
Keynes, church. 

Somersetshire. Cranmore, a triangular door-head, with rude imposts 
and jambs. — Milborne Port [cruciform, chiefly Nor.]. 

Cornwall. Tintagel. 

Eastern Counties. — Essex. Boreham, church [fine]. — *Colchester, 
Trinity, part of the tower, etc. [much Roman material; chiefly 1349]. — 
Felstead. — Great Maplestead, north door. 



NOTES. 435 

Suffolk. Barham, part of church [chiefly D.]. — Clay don, do. [fine 
view]. — Debenham [fine Nor., E. E., and P.]. — Flixton [ruin?]. — Gos- 
beck, part of church. — Hemingston [late Pointed]. — Ilketshall [Nor., E. E., 
and P.]. — Leiston. 

Norfolk. Norwich, St. Julian's. — Beestone, S. Lawrence. — Dunham 
Magna, church [part Early Nor.]. — Elmham, ruins of bishop's palace. — 
Howe. — Newton, tower. 

Cambridgeshire. Cambridge, *S. Benet's tower, and S. Giles's. 

Lincolnshire. Aukborough. — *Barton on the Humber, S. Peter's 
[chiefly D.]. This is the most eastern example. — Branston. — Cabourn 
[very old and massive]. — Clee, tower [chh. dedicated, 1192]. — Holton le 
clay, tower and chancel arch. — Heapham. — Lincoln, S. Peter's at Gowts, 
and S. Mary le Wigford. — Nettleton. — *Ropsley, part of the west end. — 
Rothwell. — Scartho. — Skellingthorpe. — Skillington, part of the church 
[E. E., and D.]. — Springthorpe [dilapidated? Nor.]. — Stow, transepts 
[chiefly Nor.]. — Swallow. — Syston [late Nor.] tower [Nor. and E. E.]. — 
Waith, tower. — Winterton. 

Central England. — Hertfordshire. S. Michael's at S. Alban's. 

Bedfordshire. *Clapham, tower [all of chh. very old]. — Knotting. 

Buckinghamshire. Caversfield, tower. — Iver. — Lavendon, tower. — 
Wing, nave and chancel, with polygonal apse, and crypt [a fine chh.]. 

Oxfordshire. Oxford, *S. Michael's, tower. — Northleigh, do. 

Northamptonshire. *Barnack, tower [remarkable chh., Nor. and 
E. E.] — *Brigslock, church [partly Nor., rude tower]. — *Brixworth, church 
[large and remarkable; Nave thought to show Roman work; Nor. aisles, 
etc.] — Earl's Barton, tower [see p. 55]. — Green's Norton, west end. — 
Pattishall. — Stow-nine- churches [partly Nor.]. — * Wittering, chancel. 

Gloucestershire. Daglingworth, church, except tower [late Nor.?]. — 
Deerhurst, tower. — Miserden, church. — Stretton, north doorway. — Up- 
leadon, chancel arch [a small chh.]. 

Warwickshire. Wooton Wawen, substructure of tower [E. E. to P.]. 

Worcestershire. Wyre Piddle, chancel arch. 

Leicestershire. Barrow on Soar. — Tugby. 

Shropshire. Barrow, chancel arch. — Church Stretton. — Clee [partly 
Nor.]. — Stanton Lacey, nave and transept. — Stottesdon. 

Derbyshire. *Repton, east end and crypt. 

Northern England. — Durham. Monk's Wearmouth, tower. — Jarrow, 
walls of church and chancel, and ruins near it: the tower is Nor. [Original 
chh., 685. Nave rebuilt 1783.] 

Northumberland. Bolam, tower. — Bywell, S. Andrew, and S. Peter. 

— Corbridge [Roman materials]. — Hexham, crypt. — Ovingham [E. E.]. 

— * Whittingham, church. The most northern example on this list. 
Yorkshire. Bardsey [Nor. and fine]. — *Kirkdale, west end and 

chancel arch [part Nor.]. — Kirk Hammerton. — Laughton en le Morthen, 
north doorway [fine, Early and D.]. — Maltby [E. E.]. — Ripon, minster, 
crypt called Wilfred's Needle [see p. 213] . — York, S. Mary, Bishop-hill 
Junior. 



436 NOTES. 

V. — CASTLES AND RESIDENCES. 

The writer has made for his own use lists of several hundred (such as he 
has not elsewhere found), arranged geographically and chronologically by 
styles, with brief descriptions added; but the present volume has already 
grown so large that they are omitted. Very full lists prepared by him and 
printed in his "Historical Monuments of France" (pp. 257-325), were 
corrected and enlarged by the lists of the Commission on these works; 
the omitted lists relating to England, while the result of much labor, could 
not be similarly revised and given the same high authority. 

VI. NORMAN KEEPS. 

See Beattie, Domestic Architecture, Grose, Lewis, Murray, Woolnoth, 
and local works. Descriptions are given on pages shown in pai'entheses. 

Southern Coast. Kent. Chilham, Cowling, Canterbury, Dover 
(p. 64), Leeds (p. 333), Saltwood, and Rochester (p. 117). — Sussex. 
Lewes and Pevensey (p. 60). — Hants. Portchester (p. 62). — Dorset. 
Corfe, and Sherbourne. — Devon. Okehampton, and Plympton (round), 
both ruined. — Cornwall. Launceston. 

Eastern Coast. Essex. Colchester (p. 69), and Hedingham, two of 
the grandest in England. — Suffolk. Orford. — Norfolk. Castle Rising, 
and Norwich (p. 73). — York. Scarborough (p. 329). — Northumberland. 
Bamborough (p. 320). 

Scottish Border. Northumberland. Newcastle (p. 219), and Norham. 

Welsh Border. Cheshire. Chester (p. 192). — Shrops. Ludlow 
(p. 313). 

On the Severn. Gloucester. Berkeley (p. 334). 

On the Thames. Surrey. Guildford. — Berks. Windsor (p. 85). — 
Middlesex. London (p. 73). 

Midland. Warwick. Kenilworth (p. 330), and Warwick (p. 331). — 
York. (N. R.) Bowes, Middleham (p. 326), Richmond, and (W. R.) 
Conisborough. — Durham. Durham (p. 228). — Westmoreland. Brough, 
and Brougham, both injured. 

VII. NOTES OMITTED. 

On Parish Churches (see pp. 288-300). 
Parish Churches are described and illustrated to some extent by Neale 
(J. P., 2 vols. 98 pi., 1824-25) ; in Wickes', C, Spires and Towers (imp. folio, 
3 vols., 1853-59); in County and very many local histories; in a few County 
collections like Essex Churches (Buckler, 8°, 1856), Cambridgeshire (Camden 
Soc, 8°, 1845), and Warwickshire (14 pts., 8°, 1844-58) ; and in a great number 
of monographs. 

On the homes of poets and authors (see p. 423). 
For an instance, see Howitt, Wm. and Mary, " Homes and Haunts of the 
British Poets," 8° (4th ed., 1858). Also the former's "Rural Life of England," 
8° (3d ed., 1844). 

On the " Simple Homes " (see pp. 422-3). 
Some idea of the more humble can be formed from " Domestic Architecture ; 
Views of Cottages and Farm Houses, chiefly of the 17th century ; Drawings by 
Prout, Pugin, and others, 54 etchings by F. Stevens," roy. 4°, 1815. 



INDEX. 



Figures in italics denote the more important references or descriptions, 
are directions to places or objects in them, described. 



Under shires 



ABBEYS. See Monasteries; as Country 
Seats, 281-4. 

Abbots hanged, 252, 253-4, 255. 

Aberystwith, 305-6. 

Ackerman, R., 229, 337, 344, 348. 

Addison, J., 184, 188, 237, 375. 

Agricola, 20, 21, 30. 

Albert (Prince), 84, 93-4, 418, 419. 

Aldborough, 43, 46-8, 434. 

Alfred (King), 50, 54-5, 384. 

Alison, Sir A., 384. 

Alnwick Castle, 321-2, 331. 

Alton, 282, 389. 

America, colonization in, ix, 371. 

Angles, The, 51; 52, 54, 55, 56, 59, 95. 

Anglesea, 15, 20, 431. 

Anne (Queen), 380, 382, 383, 398, 399. 

Antiquaries, Royal Soc. of, 19 ; their Ve- 
tusta Monumenta, v, vii, 73, 80, 200, 219, 
250, 254, 277, 279, 432-4; Archteologia, 
19, 22, 44, 432-4. 

Armada, Spanish, 82, 353, 373, 429. 

Arragon, Catharine of, 76, 150, 153. 

Art, Christian, 97-105; Saxon, 97; Nor- 
man, 97-100; Dispersion of works of, 88, 
390. See Paintings. 

Arthur (King), 53, 54, 67, 85, 90, 201. 

Aston Hall, 376-8. 

Audley End, vii, 293, 372-5, 376, 420. 

Augustine (St.), 67, 112, 278. 

Augustines. See Monasteries. 

Author's works. See Notebooks, France, 
Scott, and 425. 



BACON (Lord), 147, 291, 428. 
Bale, J. (Bp.), 247. 
Bamborough, 55, 59, 69, 269, 320. 
Barden Tower, 261. 
Barnard Castle, 325, 329. 



Barneck stone, 152, 154, 281, 366; church, 

435. 
Barry, Sir C, 412. 
Bath, 42, 106, 108, 135-7, 277; Knights of, 

75, 240. 
Battle Abbey, 279, 282. 
Bayley, J., 69, 73, 82, 84. 
Beattie, W., 308, 311, 313. 
Beckett, Sir E., 147. 
Bede (Ven.), 31, 50, 224, 428. 
Bedfordshire, 280, 282. 
Benedict (St.), 245. 
Benedictines, The. See Monasteries. 
Bentham, J., vii, 153. 
Berkeley Castle, 331, 334-5. 
Berkshire, 54, 85, 280, 431, 432, 434. 
Berwick, 14, 319-20. 
Beverley, 286-8; St. John of. 202, 287. 
Bible, The, 115, 137, 191, 248, 276, 278, 

396. 
Bignor, 43, 434. 
Billings, R. W., vii, 214, 215, 217, 221, 225, 

227. 
Birmingham, 376, 378, 402. 
Blenheim, 380, 382-6, 429. 
Blois, 68, 91, 390. 
Boleyn, Anne, 77, 395. 
Boliiigbroke (Lord), 382, 383. 
Bolton: Abbey, 254, 259-60; Hall, 260; 

Castle, 327-9. 
Borcovicus, 32, 35-6, 41. 
Boston, 29, 289, 293-5, 402 ; (N. E.), 294. 
Braybrooke (Lord), 372, 373. 
Brayley, E. W., 229, 230, 336. 
Bristol, 106, 108, 130-1, 277, 289, 290, 291-3. 
Britain, Early, 15-19; Roman, 19-49, 112; 

condition then, 21; Romans leave, 31; 

summary, 49. 
Britons, Early, 15, 17, 19, 20; ancient mon- 
uments, 431. 



438 



INDEX. 



Britton, J., vii, 69, 111, 123, 132, 136, 137, 
139, 143, 161, 183, 292, 415, 419, 432. 

Bruce, D. (Scotland), 75; Rev. J. C, 30, 31, 
32, 33, 37, 38, 39, 41; R., 318. 

Brydges, Sir E., 281. 

Buckingham Palace, 400-1; shire, 280, 296, 
297, 388, 432, 435; Dukes of, 388. 

Buckler, J. C, vii, 111, 146, 292. 

Bunker Hill, 196, 425. 

Burgh Castle, 29. 

Burleigh, 364-8, 368, 381 ; Baron, 365. 

Butler, S., 236, 314. 

Bury St. Edmund, 281. 

Byron (Lord), 141, 283-4, 291. 



CAEDMON, 263. 

Caen, 58, 146. 

Caerphilly, 308. 

Caesar, J., 19, 20, 22, 51. 

Camalodunum, 20, 28, 44, 68. 

Cambridge, 42, 52, 339, 349, 435 ; shire, 52, 
153, 280, 344, 435. 

Camden, W., 16, 19, 50, 229, 237, 391, 417. 

Campbell, T., 236. 

Canterbury, 20, 74, 99, 101, 103, 106, 108, 
111-17, 202, 278, 285, 433. 

Carcassonne, 68, 79, 84, 204, 303. 

Cardiff, 307, 309. 

Carew Castle, 306. 

Carlisle, 30, 31, 33, 34, 100, 101, 107, 109, 
214-17, 320, 328 ; Earl of, 384. 

Carnarvon, 304-5, 308. 

Carter, J., 222; O. B., 121. 

Castles, 436 ; Midland, 323-37; Norman, 
60-72; Northern, 317-23. See Roman, 
Royal, 73-94. Welsh, 302-8; do. com- 
pared with French, 305, 307, 310; with 
Scotch, 306, 319; Western, 308-17; books 
on, 69, 73, 85, 302, 308, 311, 313, 317. 

Cathedrals, iii (list of), xi, 56, 111-228; 
chief features, 100-5 ; builders of, 105, 
352; books on, 111, 119, 121, 125, 131, 
139-40, 145-6, 153-4, 161, 179, 183, 189, 
200, 214, 221; contrasts with French, 103, 
121, 126, 130, 132, 207, 234, 240; with 
Spanish, 232, 233; French features, 114, 
123, 151, 160, 169, 231; east end, form of, 
114; injury to, 103^1, 150-1, 169; Jacob's 
ladder, 136; new nave, 131; new west 
fronts, 131, 147; oldest naves, 99, 169; 
Noah's Ark, 137; size of Continental, 
140 ; watching loft, 148. See Cloisters; 
Glass; Monuments; Pointed; Porches; Pul- 
pits ; Reredos ; Screens ; Stones ; Vaulting. 

Caxton, W., 178, 243, 409. 

Chalfont, 90, 297-8. 

Channel, The, 22, 48, 51, 58, 61, 63, 64, 65. 



Chantries, 122. 

Charity Children, services, 145, 199. 

Charle's I., 86, 88, 93, 168, 193, 304, 312, 

313, 334, 378, 393, 396, 408, 414; II., 71, 

78, 82, 88, 92, 203, 304, 314, 327, 332, 391, 

396; V. (Germany), 87, 383; Edward 

(Prince), 34, 190, 215. 
Chatsworth, 381-2. 
Chatterton, T., 291, 292. 
Chaucer, G., 235, 237, 428. 
Chepstow, 277, 308-10, 311, 316. 
Cheshire, 189, 277, 389, 422, 432. 
Chester, 42, 43, 107, 109, 176, 184, 189-98, 

204, 277, 317, 432. 
Chetham, H., 199. 
Cheviots, The, 35, 52, 319, 323. 
Chevy Chase, 318, 822. 
Chichester, 22, 43, 48-9, 99, 103, 106, 108, 

119-21. 
Christianity, introduction of, 44, 53, 97, 110, 

112, 146," 149, 159, 162, 163, 175, 179, 184, 

201, 212, 213, 247-8, 251, 258, 261-2, 263, 

268, 285, 352. 
Christmas, 86, 201, 395. 
Churton, E., 254, 261, 263. 
Cinque Ports, 64. 
Civil War, The. 68, 72, 86, 93, 103, 104, 120, 

150-1, 157, 169, 179, 185, 190, 203, 214, 

216, 218, 230, 281, 288, 304, 305, 306, 310, 

312-13, 323, 325, 328, 329, 330, 331, 334, 

372, 378-9, 384, 396, 414. 
Claudius (Emp.), 20, 25, 251. 
Cloisters, 103, 116, 124, 129, 161, 167, 172, 

174-5, 178, 182-3, 195-6, 226, 242, 258, 

339, 341, 349. 
Coast-defences, Roman, 22-9; Norman, 59- 

72; Henry VIII.'s, 353. 
Cockerell, C. R., 131, 132, 133, 165, 342. 
Colchester, 28, 42. 44, 59, 69-72, 280, 420, 

429, 432, 434. 
Colleges, 124, 337-49. 
Coningsburgh, 55, 325. 
Conquest (Norman), 58-60, 74, 84, 324, 378, 

420. 
Constantine, 45, 201. 
Conway, 303-4, 308. 
Cornwall, 13, 14, 18, 61, 289, 422, 434. 
Coronations, 235 ; chair, 234-5 ; stone, 235. 
Cottingham, L. N., 229. 
Cotton, Rev. J., 294. 
Coucy, 63, 69, 70, 83. 
Coventry, 184, 290, 296, 416. 
Creasy, E. S., 386. 
Cromwell, O., 78, 88, 174, 396, 414. 
Crosses, 119, 121, 234. 
Crovland, 281. 

Crvpts, 116, 123, 210, 213-14, 227, 242, 414. 
Cumberland, 14, 40, 214, 273, 431. 



INDEX. 



439 



DANES, The, 51, 54, 56, 59, 137, 149, 154, 

161, 162, 190, 202, 214, 230, 247, 263, 271, 

285, 287. 
Dan-ell, W., 64, 67. 
Dart, J., Ill, 229, 417. 
David (Scots), 86, 319. 
Derbyshire, 14, 52, 289, 357, 368, 381, 422, 

431, 435. 
Destruction of Antiquities, 18, 27, 32, 72, 

104, 127, 222, 279. 
Devon, shire, 14, 137; Dukes of, 259, 369; 

381 ; monastery, 277. 
Dick, W. R., 73, 79. 
Dickens, C, 237, 251 ; (son), 291, 491. 
Dodsworth, W., 125. 
Domed churches, size of, 140. 
Domesday Book, 57, 63. 
Domestic architecture (old), 197, 326, 359, 

417, 422-3. 
Doncaster, 289, 295. 
Dorset, Earls of, 361; shire, 14, 282, 285, 

432. 
Dover, 22, 27, 59, 64-8, 69, 94, 100, 434. 
Drayton, M., 237, 251. 
Druids, The, 17, 18, 20, 39, 90, 427, 432. 
Dry den, J., 237. 
Dugdale, Sir W., 139, 244, 431. 
Durham, 57, 100, 107, 109, 173, 198, 215, 

220-9, 248, 270, 271, 284, 325; shire, 14, 

29, 52, 325, 435. 



EARL'S BARTON, 55, 97, 435. 

Earthquakes (mediasval), 162, 251, 253. 

Eastlake, C. L., 387, 404. 

Eaton Hall, 389. 

Edward (Confessor), 58, 230,233-4; I., 75, 
81, 219, 234, 235, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 
307, 318; II., 75, 174, 318, 335, 338; III., 
75, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 92, 183, 202, 234, 
319, 338; IV., 68, 75, 76, 90, 327, 331; V., 
76; VI., 350, 395. 

Edwards, E., 244, 252, 348, 410. 

Egbert, 54, 190. 

Eleanor (Queen), 234, 304. 

EJgin (Lord), 411. 

Elizabeth (Queen), 45, 64, 68, 72, 76, 78, 87, 
121, 168, 239, 241, 269, 282, 296, 331, 
353-5, 358, 360, 361, 364, 365, 367, 368, 
369, 370, 372, 376, 377, 384, 391, 392, 395, 
398, 411. 429. 

Elizabethan style, vii, 126, 239, 258, 282, 
358, 359, 360", 362, 364-70, 405. 

Ely, 74, 99, 106, 108, 153-9, 160, 173, 180, 
280, 420. 

England, Geography, 13; historical divi- 
sions, 14; early, 15-19; Roman, 19-49; 
condition then, 21, 49; Engle and Saxon, 



50-6; condition then, 55-6 ; name, 51, 52; 
united, 54; memorials of, 55-6; Norman, 
57-74, 95-6; "Greater," 94, 429; the 
Church in, 97-300; Civil, Norman to 
Eliz., 301-52; Mediaeval, 324-5, 349-52; 
Elizabethan, 353-55; age of James I., 
371-2 ; colonizing, 371 ; since 1640, 378- 
81; New, 238, 371, 402. 

English, people, 56, 59, 95, 301, 350, 353-4, 
424 ; rural scenery, 16, 45, 47, 85, 124-5, 
252, 277, 325-6," 356, 386. See, also, 
Views. 

Essex, 28, 44, 51, 52, 58, 68, 69, 71, 90, 280, 
292, 353, 372. 432, 434. 

Ethelbert, 27, 112. 

Etheldreda (St.), 106, 154, 158, 159, 428. 

Eton, 298, 348-9. 

Exeter, 99, 101, 106, 108, 137-9; College, 
338 ; Marquis of, 367. 



FALAISE, 58, 63, 69, 70, 81, 98. 

Fall of spires, 119, 212; towers, 156, 176, 

180. 
Fergusson, J., 156, 217. 
Feudal: Guards, 323-37; system, 323, 324. 
Fires (medieval), 120, 150, 159, 162, 172, 

180. 
Flaxman, J., 131, 132. 
Fontainebleau, 91, 390. 
Fonthill, 282. 
Fonts, 123, 414. 
Fountains Abbey, 250, 254, 255-9, 262, 278 ; 

Hall, 258. 
Fowler, W., 43, 433. 
Fox, H., 375. 
France, 57-8, 383 ; " Historical Monuments " 

of, xi, 58, 79, 245, 333, 414, 436. 
Freeman, E. A., 57. 
Frideswide (St.), 170. 
Fumess, 273-77. 



GALLERIES (long rooms), 357, 358, 362, 
363, 370, 376, 377, 385 ; (of art, see Paint- 
ings.) 

Garrick, D., 184, 237. 

Garter, Order of, 86, 91. 

Geometry, remarkable, 123, 217. 

George I., 387, 398, 399 ; II., 398, 399 ; III., 
399, 400, 407, 410; IV., 401, 408, 414. 

German races, viii, 15, 51, 52, 53, 54; Ocean, 
22, 26, 52, 68, 263-5, 269-70, 330. 

Gibbons, G., 88, 92, 366, 397. 

Gibbs, J., 290. 

Gilsland Spa, 39, 41. 

Glass, colored, 102, 138, 139, 196, 267; 
Flemish, 187, 340; new, 119, 128, 157, 



440 



INDEX. 



226, 260; old, 113, 122, 127, 171, 173, 187, 

208, 209, 214, 217, 240, 340. 
Glastonbury, 251-4, 277, 278, 289, 343. 
Gloucester," 42, 99, 103, 107, 109, 171-5, 277; 

shire, 14, 43, 130, 171, 277, 289, 290, 291, 

334, 431, 432, 435. 
Goldsmith, 0., 236. 
Gothic Revival, 290-1, 339, 342, 387, 389, 

403-4, 406. 
Gray, C, 72; Thos., 90, 236, 296-7; Lady J., 

395. 
Green, J. R., 50, 51, 52, 53. 
Greenwich, 391. 
Grey, Lady J., 77, 83. 
Grose, F., x, 61, 64, 68, 256, 268, 278, 279, 

302, 308, 321, 335. 
Guesten Hall, 183. 



HADDON HALL, 357-9, 362. 

Hadrian (Emp.), 30, 31, 219. 

Hall, S. C, 334, 355, 368, 375. 

Hallam, H., 246. 

Halls : mediaeval, 63, 66, 70, 82, 303, 309- 
10, 312, 322, 332, 334, 357, 358, 394, 404, 
413-14; collegiate, 341-2; modern, 360, 
361-2, 367, 368, 369, 373-4, 377, 397, 405, 
406, 414-15: Town, 401-3; changes in 
form, etc., 301, 322, 355, 361-2, 374. 

Haltwhistle, 33, 323. 

Hampden, J., 291, 428. 

Hampshire, 14, 28, 44, 52, 62, 121, 279, 353, 
432, 434. 

Hampton Court, 88, 366, 368, 380, 381, 391, 
393-9, 401, 420. 

Handel, 237. 

Hardwicke: Hall, 368-70; Eliz. of, 369. 

Harlech, 305. 

Harold, 58, 67, 169. 

Hastings, 58, 67, 90, 99, 279; W., 238, 414. 

Hatfield, x, 375-6, 420. 

Hengist, 51, 67. 

Henry I., 61, 85, 90, 117, 306, 314; II., 67, 
85," 96, 163, 202, 214, 314, 334; III., 62, 
71, 74, 82, 90, 190, 230, 234, 242, 287, 302, 
416 ; IV., 62, 75, 115, 203, 304 ; V., 75, 87, 
234, 311, 319; VI., 75, 146, 209, 293, 335, 
345, 348; VII., 76, 77, 93, 101, 182. 230, 
240-1, 293, 311, 318, 319. 334, 388, 409; 
Vni., 76, 77, 87, 91, 104, 147, 150, 162, 
170, 183, 190, 203, 248, 253, 258, 275, 282, 
298, 306, 314, 333, 346, 348, 349, 353, 358, 
368, 373, 375, 391, 392, 393, 394, 395, 399. 

Hereford, 99, 107. 109, 175-9, 184. 

Herstmonceaux, 335-7. 

Hertfordshire, 20, 43, 280, 375, 433. See 
St. Alban's. 

Hexham, 33, 213, 271-3, 435. 



Hilda (St.), 263, 265, 428. 

Hoare, Sir R. C, 16, 17, 434. 

Holbein, 303, 398. 

Holland House, 375. 

Horsley, J., 30, 33. 

Hospitals, 124, 199, 416-17. 

Houard, M., 57, 324. 

Houghton Hall, x, 386-7. 

Howard, Cath., 77, 395; John, 143. 

Howitt, W., 297, 436. 

Hiibner's Inscriptiones, 19; map from, 48. 

Hughes, T., 54. 

Humber, The, 14, 52. 

Hume, D., 19, 54, 57. 

Huntingdon, 289. 



INNS (old), 168, 253, 317, 366. 
Ireland, 96; W. H., 64, 65, 69. 
Irving. W., 86, 284. 
Isurium, 46-8. 



JAMES I., 87, 126, 239, 317, 318, 353, 362, 
370, 376, 391, 392, 393, 398, 409, 417; age 
of, 371-8; style of, vii, 362-3, 373-7 ; II., 
78, 88, 93, 190, 396, 397; I. (Scotland), 
62, 86; IV., 319; VI., 318. 

James, Sir H., 16, 57. 

Jameson, Mrs. A., 244, 246, 397, 400. 

Jews, treatment of, 75, 202 ; house, 162. 

John (King), 71, 74, 182, 202. 

Johnson, Dr. S., 143, 184, 306. 

Jones, Inigo, vii, 16, 17, 392, 412. 

Jonson, Ben, 235, 357. 

Jorvaulx, 254. 

Jutes, 51. 52, 95. 



KENILWORTH, 60, 69, 317, 330-31. 

Kensington, 88, 375, 380, 399. 

Kent, 14, 18, 19, 20, 22, 30, 51, 52, 58, 64, 

67, 90, 111, 117, 278, 281, 333, 353, 355, 

360, 391, 431, 432, 433, 434. 
Kerr, 355, 385. 
King, D., vii, 111; E., 23, 69, 302, 317; 

R. J., 183, 213, 217, 227. 
Kits Coty House, 18, 431. 
Kirkstall, 254, 261-3. 
Knole, 360-3, 420. 



LACOCK ABBEY, 282. 

Lancashire, 52, 198, 273, 359, 422, 433. 

Lannercost, 41, 273. 

Laud (Arehb.), 78. 

Leeds, 261, 267, 402; Castle, x, 331, 333-4. 

Lee Priory, 281-2. 



INDEX. 



441 



Leicester: shire, 281, 43.3, 435; Earl of, 331. 

Leland, J., xi, 25, 26, 170, 252, 279, 434. 

Lely, Sir P., 92, 363, 397-8. 

Le welly n, 302. 

Lewis," S., 168, 304, 436. 

Ley burn, 325, 326, 327. 

Libraries: Blenheim, 383, 385; Br. Museum, 
409-10; cathedral, 167, 178, 188, 195-6, 
202, 227; church, 286, 296; college (Cam- 
bridge), 345, 347-8, (Oxford), 341, 347-8; 
Eton, 349; monastic, 247-8, 281; others, 
199, 242, 415; Temple, 405. 

Lichfield, 107, 109, 176, 183-9, 190. 

Lincoln, 29, 42, 43, 100, 103, 107, 109, 161-8, 
168, 184, 234, 433, 435; St. Hugh of, 
162-3, 105 ; shire, 29, 161, 168, 281, 289, 
290, 293, 295, 433, 435. 

Lindisfarne, 220, 268-70. 

Liverpool, 359, 403, 411. 

Llanstephan, 307. 

Logan Stone, 18. 

London, 20, 22, 42, 52, 59, 66, 67, 86, 99, 
100, 146, 147, 204, 243, 267, 280, 291, 372, 
393, 396, 419-22; atmosphere, 143, 144; 
books on, 73, 139, 229, 419 ; churches, 290, 
405, 420, 421 ; Great Fire, 140, 411, 419, 
421; Houses of Parliament, 412-16 ; hos- 
pitals, 417 ; palaces, 392, 399^01 ; public 
buildings, 404-12, 421; Roman, 420, 433 ; 
St. Paul's, 90, 139^5; schools, 348; 
Tower, 66, 69, 70, 73-84, 86, 91, 117. -See 
Westminster. 

Longfellow, H. W., 237-8. 

Longford and Longleat, 126. 

Louis XL, 21 ; XIV., 90, 92, 383, 384, 396. 

Lowther Castle, 389. 

Ludlow, 313-17. 

Lymne, x, 22, 27-8, 29. 

Lysons, S., 42-3, 432-4; D., 419. 



MACAULAY (Lord), 380. 

Mackie, C, 328. 

Magna Charta, 71, 74, 79, 90, 115. 

Malmesbury, 279-80; Wm. of, 57, 175. 

Manchester, 101, 107, 109, 198-200, 404, 411, 

417. 
Manorbeer, 306. 

Marlborough, Duke of, 382, 383-4. 
Martin, C. W.. 333, 334. 
Martyrs (English), 72, 77, 78, 114, 343. 
Mary (Queen), 72, 77, 78, 123, 153, 168, 191, 

384; (Q. of Scots), 83, 241, 319, 328, 367, 

370, 381; (Q. of Wm. III.), 231. 
Massachusetts Bay, 238, 426. 
Middleham, 326-7, 329. 
Middlesex, 73, 375, 391, 393, 433. See 

London, Westminster. 



Milman, H. H., 139. 

Milner, J., 121, 125. 

Milton: Abbas, 282; Abbey, 282; John, 53, 
90, 104, 116, 236, 297, 314. 

Monasteries, 205, 244-84, 351-2, 378 ; 
Midland and Eastern, 280-1; Northum- 
brian, 267-73; Northwestern, 273-7; 
Southern, 278-80; Western, 277-8; York- 
shire, 254-67. 

Buildings saved, 147, 150, 159, 196, 
282-4; plan used in colleges, 338; pulpits, 
196, 278 ; stair, unusual, 272. 

Augustine, 130, 245-6, 259, 271, 277, 
281; Benedictine, 112, 146, 150, 153, 159, 
171, 242, 245, 255, 266, 270, 273, 277, 
279, 281,282, 373; Carthusian, 163, 245 ; 
Cistercian, 255, 259, 273, 277, 279, 282; 
Cluniac, 246, 282 ; Franciscan, 246 ; Pre- 
monstratensian, 246, 283. 

Monasticon Anglicanum, vi, vii, 244. 

Monmouthshire, 277, 308, 311. 

Montagu, Lady M., 184. 

Monuments : brasses, 179, 225, 232 ; in 
cathedrals, 115, 123, 136, 141, 143-4, 153, 
174, 182, 188, 194, 209, 218-19, 418; in 
churches, 288, 291, 418 ; memorial, 417-9; 
London, 419; sundry, 271; Westminster, 
233-41. 

More, Sir T., 77, 414. 

Morecambe Bay, 14, 274. 



NAPOLEON I., 66, 68, 411; III., 315. 

Nash, J., x, 85, 355, 357, 367, 368, 375, 401. 

Naworth, 41, 320, 323. 

Neale, J., vii, 145, 149; J. P., 229, 292, 334, 
355, 361, 368, 436. 

Nelson (Lord), 93, 143, 408, 419. 

Netley Abbey, 279. 

Newark, 290. 

Newcastle, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 48, 96, 218-20, 
323; Soc. of Antiq., 30, 220. 

Newstead Abbey, 283-4. 

Newton, Sir I., 232, 238. 

Nonsuch, 391-2. 

Norfolk, 52, 73, 159, 281, 386, 387, 435. 

Norham, 94, 320. 

Norman: Art, 58; castles, 60-73, 301, 323; 
size of keeps, 69; churches, 64; grand- 
est, 100; best plan, 99; best tower, 159; 
Conquest, 58-60, 74, 84, 324, 378, 420; 
historv, 57-74, 95-6, 301 ; books on, 56-7 ; 
masonry, 61, 62, 66, 69-70, 117, 120, 152, 
262; st3'le (examples of), v, vii, 58, 64, 
116, 117, 122, 125, 127, 130, 137, 140, 146, 
148, 151, 152, 154, 155, 156, 160, 164, 169, 
170, 172, 173, 176, 177, 182, 183, 192, 212, 
216, 219, 221-4, 251, 252, 262, 264, 269, 



442 



INDEX. 



275, 276, 279, 280, 281, 285, 286, 298, 316, 

405, 434-5. 
Normandy, 58, 61. 
Northamptonshire, 55, 97, 149, 280, 282, 

364, 431, 433, 435. 
Northumberland, 14, 30, 48, 52, 96, ' 149, 

218, 267-73, 319-23, 435; Countess of, 

398; earls of, 86, 361; dukes of, 30, 321, 

322. 
Norwich, 60, 99, 103, 151, 173, 434; castle, 

69, 73 ; cathedral, 106, 109, 159-61. 
Notebooks, the author's, ix, xi, 33, 229, 299, 

300, 397. 
Nottinghamshire, 168, 282, 283, 290, 368, 433. 

OLD MEN'S HOME, 124. 

Othona, 28. 

Oxford, 124, 162, 280, 382, 428, 435; cathe- 
dral, 107, 109, 170-1, 416 ; colleges, 337- 
44; shire, 90, 280, 337, 382, 417, 431, 433, 
435; Earl of, 409. 

PAINTINGS : collections of, 92, 126, 283, 
322, 332, 341, 342, 347, 354, 357, 363, 366, 
367, 387, 388, 393, 397-8, 408, 415 ; medi- 
aeval, 102, 148, 241, 248; largest do. in an 
Eng. church, 155. 

Palaces : Bishops', 120, 133 ; patrician, 381- 
90; royal, 368, 390-401. 

Parker, J. H., 183, 338, 356. 

Parliaments: held, 75, 202, 242, 384, 414; 
forces, 68, 72, 190, 203, 216, 310, 325, 
328, 330, 416 ; Houses of, 412-16. 

Parr, Katharine, 395. 

Paulinus, 162, 168, 201. 

Penshurst, 355-7, 420. 

Peterborough, 57, 100, 106, 108, 149-53, 
160, 162, 173, 222, 280, 281, 420. 

Pevensey, 22, 28, 58, 59, 60-2, 335. 

Peverells, 67, 83. 

Picts, 31, 36, 41, 51, 273. 

Pierrefonds, 310, 315, 333. 

Plantagenets, The, 96, 391. 

Plautius, 20, 21. 

Pointed Styles, Examples of : Early Eng- 
lish, vii, 100; in cathedrals, 118, 119, 122, 
126, 146, 158, 164, 165, 169, 175, 177, 178, 
180, 181, 185, 193, 205, 206, 207, 212, 216, 
222, 226; in abbeys, etc., 231, 251, 260, 
264, 266, 270, 272, 275, 279, 284; in 
churches, 285, 366, 405. 

Decorated, vii, 101; in cathedrals, 119, 
130, 132-4, 148, 154, 156, 157, 160, 164, 
169, 172, 177, 180, 185, 188, 193, 205, 206, 
213, 216, 217, 224, 227; in abbeys, etc., 
242, 264, 267, 275. 278, 280, 284; in 
churches, 287, 290, 292, 338, 341. 



Perpendicular, vii, 91, 93, 101; in cath- 
edrals, 113, 116, 118, 122, 135-6, 157, 160, 
164, 166, 170, 172, 173, 175, 178, 182, 193, 
195, 198, 199, 205, 206, 213, 224, 227 ; in 
abbeys, etc., 240, 257, 260, 264, 266, 275, 
279; in churches, 285, 287, 292, 293, 295, 
298, 311, 317, 333, 341, 346, 356, 361, 363, 
394, 400, 402. 

Modern, 81, 89, 92, 281, 282, 295, 296, 
322, 332, 338, 340, 342, 343, 347, 406, 412- 
15. 
Continental used, 339, 340. 

Porches, 127, 113. 

Portchester, 28, 59, 62-4. 

Portland, Duke of, 282-3, 389. 

Portus, Adurni, 22; Anderida, 22, 28, 60-2; 
Lemanis, 22, 27-8; Magnus, 28, 62-4. 

Preservation, appeal for, 46, 423-5; exam- 
ples of, 47, 72, 174, 187, 279, 340. 

Printing, early, 147, 203, 351-2. 

Pulpits, monastic, 196, 278 ; new, 139, 153, 
181, 186, 225, 286. • 

Purbeck marble used, 113, 114, 127, 128, 
138, 149, 153, 156, 164, 181, 208, 210, 226, 
234. 257, 288, 414. 

Puritanism, 104, 378, 380; Puritans, 191, 
426. 

Pvne, W. H , 85, 87, 88, 390, 394. 



RABY CASTLE, 325. 

Raglan, 311-13, 429. 

Raleigh, Sir W., 78, 395. 

Rasteil, J., 96. 

Rayner, S., 357. 

Rebellion (1745), 34, 190, 215, 330. 

Records, the Public, 50, 57, 80. 

Reculver, 22, 26-7, 432. 

Red Sandstone, 176, 180, 183, 185, 189, 275, 
296. 

Reformation, The, 77, 78, 103, 104, 110, 120, 
168, 170, 171, 177, 203, 244, 291, 338, 350, 
352, 378, 395, 428-9. 

Renaissance, 101, 115, 156, 194, 239, 290, 
338, 345, 347, 355, 361, 362, 364, 368, 369, 
372, 375, 376, 380, 392, 412, 415. 

Reredos: old, 148, 340; new, 157, 173-4, 
177, 181, 186-7, 195, 233, 414. 

Residences, vii, xi, 281-4, 354, 378-9, 380, 
436; before 1600, 355-71; changes in, 
365 ; age of James I., 371-8 ; 17th cent- 
ury, 381-90; remarks, 390. See Gal- 
leries; Halls; Roofs; Towers. 

Restorations, 65, 79, 84, 89, 104, 127-8, 
138-9, 147, 152-3, 165, 169, 174, 180, 182, 
183, 189, 194, 216, 222, 223, 267, 286, 307, 
315, 333, 405, 413, 414, 425-6. 

Revolution (1688), 190, 380, 382. 



INDEX. 



443 



Reynolds, Sir J., 143. 

Richard I., 74, 234; II., 75, 86, 146, 202, 
217, 304, 328, 355, 413; III., 21; Protector, 
76 ; of Cirencester, 42. 

Richardson, W., 254. 

Richborough, 22-26, 27, 29, 42, 46, 51, 61. 

Richmond, 59, 60, 94, 325, 329; Hill, 90; 
palace, 391. 

Ripon, 99, 100, 107, 109, 212-14, 255; Mar- 
quis of, 255. 

Ritchie, L., 85, 92. 

Robertson (Dean), 111. 

Rochester, 22, 59, 69, 74, 77, 94, 99, 106, 108, 
117-19, 317, 420, 436. 

Roman : amphitheatres, 25 ; baths, 46 ; 
bricks, 23, 26, 29, 44, 46, 60, 62, 66(?), 70; 
do. used in mediaeval works, 147, 148, 310; 
castra, 22-29, 119 ; coins, 25, 27, 61 ; gar- 
risons, 25, 32, 33, 35, 200, 201; masonry, 
23, 24, 25, 26, 29, 34, 36, 37, 41, 44, 45, 48, 
60, 62, 65, 66, 70, 193, 310; minor anti- 
quities, 24, 27, 29, 36, 42, 48, 61, 162, 
189, 201, 214, 219, 220, 273; pavements, 
42, 43, 46, 47-8, 378, 432-4; period, see 
Britain, England, and 121 ; stvle, modern 
use, 342, 347, 388, 402, 403, *407-9, 412 ; 
towns, 20, 42, 161 ; town walls, 42-5, 48, 
147, 190; Wall, 30-42, 219, 318, 322, 378; 
villas, 25, 43; works, destruction of, 26, 
27, 28, 32; general, 21, 22, 427, 434; 
works used by the Normans, 27, 28, 59, 
60, 65, 66, 68, 148. Romans, The, 59. 

Roofs (timber or wood, Eng. style), ecclesi- 
astic examples, 118, 120, 124, 148, 152, 
155, 167, 169, 194, 199, 212, 216-17, 218, 
267, 286; civil, 332, 342, 357, 358, 360, 
367, 368, 374, 394, 405, 406, 413. 

Rosamond (Fair), 384. 

Roscoe, T., 302, 306, 311. 

Roses, Wars of the, 21, 75, 82, 146, 190, 203, 
304, 314, 319, 323, 327, 353, 378. 

Rubens, Sir P. P., 92, 332, 393. 

Rugby, 348. 

Rutland, Earls of, 358-9. 



SAFFRON-WALDEN, 292-3. 

Salisbury, 16, 100, 101, 103, 164, 188, 198, 
231, 242; cathedral, 106, 108, 125-30. 

Sandwich, 23, 64. 

Saxons, The, 17, 27, 45, 46, 49, 51, 52, 54, 
55, 56, 59, 63, 65, 68, 74, 99 ; kings, 55, 
90; Vitus, 51; period, 49, 50-6, 74, 120, 
137, 162, 171, 175, 179, 184, 190, 230, 245, 
247, 285, 286, 302, 313; work, 55, 66, 97, 
107, 211, 212, 280, 310, 321, 378, 434-5. 

Scarborough, 329-30. 

Scenery, see English. 



Scotland, 52, 96, 318, 323. 

Scots, The, 31, 36, 41, 51, 202, 214, 272, 319, 

320. 
Scott, Sir G. G., 153, 173, 176, 177, 178, 

179, 182, 186, 189, 222, 225, 295, 340, 418. 
Scott, Sir W., xi, 41, 268, 269, 317, 319, 320, 

330, 384; "Lands of Scott," xi, 41, 215, 

221, 268, 273, 317, 319, 325, 329, 330, 384. 
Scropes, The, 327, 328. 
Screens, new, 122, 128, 157, 177, 186, 225, 340. 
Sculpture, mediaeval, 101-2, 103, 126, 129, 

132-3, 137, 153, 165-6, 185. 
Sees, early, 120, 125, 137, 159, 268, 285. 
Selby, 254, 265-7. 
Services (church), 145, 199, 211, 232; other, 

276-7. 
Severus (Emp.), 25, 26, 30, 31. 
Shakespeare, W., 76, 87, 90, 236, 291, 299- 

300, 398, 428. 
Sherborne, 285. 
Shrewsbury, 277, 317. 
Shrines (mediaeval), 115, 148-9, 166, 171, 

177, 180, 226, 288. 
Shropshire, 277, 313, 435. 
Sidneys, The, 356. 
Silbury Hill, 17, 431. 
Silchester, 44-6, 432. 
Sistine Chapel, 346. 
Smith, Albert, 197; A. C, 432; C. R., 23, 

25, 27 ; H. E., 46. 
Solway, The, 33, 39, 41, 319. 
Somerset: shire, 131, 135, 251, 277, 289, 431, 

434; House, 407; Protector, 407, 414. 
Southampton, 14, 52, 62,279, 417; shire, 14, 

28, 44, 52, 62, 121, 279 ; Earl of, 429. 
Southey, R., 236, 291, 357. 
Southwell, 107, 109, 168-9, 284. 
Speke Hall, 259-60. 
Spencer, Ed., 236. 
Spires, 119, 129, 151, 170, 185, 212,218; fall 

of, 119, 212. 
St. Alban, 44, 146, 428. 
St. Alban's, 20, 42, 43-4, 99, 106, 108, 131, 

145-9, 280, 291, 420, 435. 
Staffordshire, 13, 14, 183, 282. 
Stamford, 290, 364, 365. 
Stanley (Dean), 229, 230, 235, 242, 243. 
Stephen (King), 71, 74, 95-6, 124, 314, 324, 

415. 
Stoke Pogis, 90, 236, 296-7. 
Stonehenge, 16-18, 125, 431. 
Stones (building, etc.), see Barneck; bad 

(Oxford), 344; basalt, 38; cement, 70; 

Chilmark, 126; clunch, 157; flint, 26, 45, 

48, 60, 62, 147; lime, 204; millstone grit, 

198; Oolite, 165; see Purbeck, and Red 

Sandstone; Runcorn, 193; Sandstone, 38, 

356. 



444 



INDEX. 



Storer, J., Ill, 120; A. J., 344. 

Stowe, 63, 76 ; House, 388-9. 

St. Peter's (Rome), 142, 143. 

Strafford, Earl of, 78, 414. 

Stratford-on-Avon, 291, 298-300. 

Street, G. S., 131. 

Strid, The, 259, 260-1. 

Strickland, A., 395. 

Stukeley, W., 16, 18, 31. 

Styles: classic, 135, 290, 345, 389, 402, 403; 
domestic (old), 197, 326, 359; Greek, 387; 
see Elizabethan; Georgian, 332; Italian, 
322, 342, 346, 347, 364, 400; Jacobean, 56, 
228, 239, 262-3, 373-7; Louis XIV., 92; 
XV., 360, 367. See Norman. Palladian, 
385, 387. See Pointed, Renaissance; see 
Roman, and 139, 142; Romanesque, 97- 
100, 103, 146, 175; see Saxon, and 55-6. 

Suffolk, 28, 29, 71, 281, 290, 435, 436. 

Surrey, 391, 434, 436. 

Sussex, 28, 48, 51, 58, 60, 119, 253, 279, 282, 
335, 434, 436. 

TADMOR (an English), 36. 

Tanner, R. (Bp.), 244. 

Tenby, 306-7. 

Tewkesburv, 277. 

Thames, The, 14, 20, 22, 28, 52, 68, 74, 85, 

150, 162, 278, 348, 371, 392. 
Thierry, F., 57. 
Thirlwall, 40, 323. 
Thomson, J., 236. 

Thorpe, J., 365, 373, 375. 

Tintern, 259, 277-8, 311. 

Towers: Cathedral (central), 99, 106-9, 113, 
118, 122, 134, 147 and 148, 152, 155-6, 
165 and 167, 168, 17D, 176, 180 and 181, 
185, 194, 205 and 207, 212. 216, 222 and 
224 ; (western), 99, 102, 106-9, 113, 131, 

151, 154, 164, 168, 185, 193, 198, 205, 7, 8, 
and 11, 212, 218, 221-23. 

Church, 55, 260, 266, 285-6, 287, 289, 
290, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298; 
monastic, 230-2, 252, 257, 260, 262, 266, 
272, 275. Norman (keeps), 60, 61. 63, 66, 
69, 80, 81, 89-90, 320, 326-7, 329, 427; 
other keeps, 309, 312, 316, 321; Roman, 
65. See Castles. 

Changes in character of towers, 355, 
364, 368, 369, 374; strong masonry in, 
303-4, 326. 

Beauchamp, 79, 83 ; Magdalen, 341 ; 
Victoria, 413. 

Towers, fall of, 156, 176, 180. 

Town Halls, 200, 401-3. 

Turner, S., 50 ; T. H., 302. 

Tvne, The, 30, 32, 33, 34, 96, 218, 323. 

Tynemouth, 270-1, 323. 



ULVERSTONE, 273. 



VANBRUGH, Sir J., 342, 373, 381, 384. 

Vandyke, 92, 332, 363, 386. 

Vaulting (remarkable), 91, 122, 130, 134, 
136, 138, 142, 160, 210, 346, 414-15. 

Verrio, 88, 92, 93, 366, 397, 398. 

Vespasian (Emp.), 25, 63. 

Victoria (Queen), 85, 93, 376, 399, 401, 411, 
430 ; Tower, 413. 

Views: Audley End, 373; Blenheim Park, 
386; Bolton Castle, 328-9; Cambridge, 
347; Chester, 191-3 ; Dover, 65; Furness, 
274 ; Hampton Court, 397 ; Herstmon- 
ceaux, 335; Lindisfarne, 269-70; Middle- 
ham, 327; Pevensey, 61; Richborough, 
23 ; Roman Wall, 34-9 ; Scarborough, 
330; St. Paul's, 144; The Strid, 261; The 
Surprise, 255-6; Tor Hill, 252-3; Tyne- 
mouth, 270; Warwick, 331; Wells, "l34; 
Whitby, 261-3; Windsor, 90, 94; York, 
207, 21*1. See English. 

Vinconum, 45. 

Viollet-le-Duc, M., 165, 315. 

Vitruvius (Brit.), vii, 356, 375, 386, 387. 



WAAGEN, Dr , 356. 

Wales, 51, 52, 96, 175, 323, 350, 422; borders 
of, 302-17; princes of, 304, 314; castles 
of, compared with French, 305, 307, 310; 
with Scotch, 306. 

Wallace, Sir W., 318, 414. 

Walpole, H., 335, 370-1, 392; Sir R., 387. 

Waltham, 280. 

Walton, I., 123. 

Wardour Castle, 126. 

Warkworth, 320-1. 

Wars, see Civil, Roses. 

Warwick: Castle, 305,327,332-3; Church, 
296; Countess of, 375; earls of, 75, 83, 
146-7, 296, 327, 331, 361; shire, 14, 18, 
282, 290, 296, 298, 330, 331, 376, 435, 436. 

Watt, J., 104, 239, 376. 

Welbeck Abbey, 282-3. 

Wellington, Duke of, 143. 

Wells, ~i06, 108, 131-5, 137, 231, 242, 248, 
254, 284, 289; Hugh of, 163. 

Welsh, The, 190, 191. 

Wessex, 51, 58. 

West, T., 273, 274, 275. 

Westminster: Abbey, 17, 76, 78,100, 101, 
103, 113, 138, 144, 229-44, 263, 280, 284, 
392, 418, 420; Duke of, 389; Hall, 413-14; 
Palace, 412-16 ; School, 348. 

Westmoreland, 14, 389, 431, 436. 

Whitby, 254, 263-6. 



INDEX. 



445 



Whitehall, 392-3. 

White Horse, The, 54. 

Wicke, C, 292, 436. 

Wilberforce (Bp.), 123; Wm.. 238, 428. 

Wild, C, vii, 111, 161, 179, 183, 189, 200. 

Wildman (Col.), 283. 

William I., 58, 59, 61, 67, 69, 74, 78, 85, 95, 

150, 174, 219, 221, 2G6, 268, 279, 314, 331; 

II., 61, 86, 95, 214, 215, 413 ; III., 88, 230, 

380, 382, 383, 396, 397, 398, 399; IV., 401; 

(Scots), 96. 
Willis, B., Ill; Rev. R., Ill, 119, 134, 179, 

185. 
Wilton House, 126. 
Wiltsch (Hist. Chh.), 201, 268. 
Wiltshire, 16, 90, 125, 279, 282, 432, 434. 
Winchester, 99, 101, 106, 108, 121-5, 348, 

416. 
Windsor: Castle, 60, 69, 71, 84-94, 305, 308, 

390, 393, 395, 420 ; size of rooms, 92 ; town, 
. 296, 297, 298, 348. 
Winkle, B., Ill, 159, 213. 
Winshields, 37, 38, 39. 
Winstanley, H., vii, 372. 
Wolfe (Gen.), 398. 
Wollaton Hall, 368. 



Wolsey (Card.), 93, 170, 203, 341, 393, 395. 
Woodstock, 384. 

Woolnoth, W., Ill, 302, 317, 436. 
Worcester, 57, 99, 107, 109, 176, 179-83, 

184, 217, 277, 402; Marquis of, 312, 313; 

shire, 14, 179, 277. 
Wordsworth, W., 291. 
Wren, Sir C, 88, 117, 140, 141, 167, 230, 

282, 290, 342, 347, 380, 394, 396, 399, 402, 

419, 420. 
Wright, T., 46, 50, 313, 344. 
Wroxall Abbey, 282. 

Wyatt, Jas., 127, 176, 189, 222, 281; Jef., 88. 
Wvatville, Sir J., vii, 85, 89. 
Wye, The, 277, 308, 311. 
Wykeham, Wm. of, 85, 123, 124, 338, 339, 

341, 348. 



YORK, 42, 43, 47, 48, 58, 99, 100, 101, 103, 
107, 109, 200-12, 217, 221, 231, 254, 255, 
265, 266, 285, 288, 392, 435 ; Column, 419; 
Duke of, 62; house of, 391; shire, 14, 29, 
43, 46-8, 52, 200, 212, 213, 250, 254-67, 
280, 286, 289, 295, 318, 325-30, 384, 434, 
435. 



University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge. 












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